Eight lessons for teaching macroeconomic policy after COVID-19: a heterodox perspective

In this paper, we advance eight lessons that COVID-19, and before that, the Global Financial Crisis, imply for the teaching of macroeconomics to undergraduates. These lessons all pertain to fiscal and monetary policy, which we argue are central to macroeconomics and which should take a greater focus in our teaching. They touch upon key theoretical perspectives which underpin the policies considered, and they challenge the way that mainstream economics has approached these policy questions. They are, therefore, useful ideas around which to generate debate in undergraduate teaching about orthodox perspectives. Debate, we argue, is always intellectually healthy and makes teaching more instructive and enjoyable for students. This paper summarizes the main themes of traditional mainstream thinking about fiscal and monetary policies, restates some problems with this thinking identified by heterodox economics, reflects on some key features of the policy responses to COVID-19 and the Global Financial Crisis, and translates those reflections into eight lessons that could be used to shape the teaching of macroeconomic policy.