IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v10y2018i5p1486-d145324.html

Rethinking Teaching of Basic Principles of Economics from a Sustainability Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Namrata Chindarkar

    (Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, Singapore 259772, Singapore)

  • Dodo J. Thampapillai

    (Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, Singapore 259772, Singapore)

Abstract

In this paper, we posit that sustainability warrants explicit recognition in the teaching of basic principles of economics. The conventional exposition of conceptual and analytic frameworks in basic principles in almost all standard economics textbooks overlooks at least two basic flaws. The first of these concerns the collection of residual externalities that exist without being internalized in market transactions and hence fall outside the calculus of national income accounting. For example, not all energy resource prices capture the entirety of the damages inflicted on natural ecosystems. The cumulus of residual externalities threatens the feasibility of sustainability. The second flaw is the absence of sustainability as a necessary condition in the fundamental benchmark of perfect competition (PC). Sustainability, when explicitly introduced in the PC benchmark, results in significant changes to conceptual premises in economics. The most significant of such changes concerns the axiomatic differentiation between “goods” and “bads”.

Suggested Citation

  • Namrata Chindarkar & Dodo J. Thampapillai, 2018. "Rethinking Teaching of Basic Principles of Economics from a Sustainability Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-8, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:5:p:1486-:d:145324
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/5/1486/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/5/1486/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daniel Kahneman & Peter P. Wakker & Rakesh Sarin, 1997. "Back to Bentham? Explorations of Experienced Utility," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(2), pages 375-406.
    2. Hirshleifer,Jack & Glazer,Amihai & Hirshleifer,David, 2005. "Price Theory and Applications," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521523424, Enero-Abr.
    3. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/5l6uh8ogmqildh09h4687h53k is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Knetsch, Jack L, 1989. "The Endowment Effect and Evidence of Nonreversible Indifference Curves," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(5), pages 1277-1284, December.
    5. Gene M. Grossman & Alan B. Krueger, 1995. "Economic Growth and the Environment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(2), pages 353-377.
    6. Dodo J. Thampapillai, 2010. "Perfect competition and sustainability: a brief note," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 37(5), pages 384-390, April.
    7. Alan Blinder, 2010. "Teaching Macro Principles after the Financial Crisis," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(4), pages 385-390, September.
    8. Li, Bin Grace & Gupta, Pranav & Yu, Jiangyan, 2017. "From natural resource boom to sustainable economic growth: Lessons from Mongolia," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 7-25.
    9. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/5l6uh8ogmqildh09h4687h53k is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Joseph E. Stiglitz & Amartya Sen & Jean-Paul Fitoussi, 2009. "The measurement of economic performance and social progress revisited," Documents de Travail de l'OFCE 2009-33, Observatoire Francais des Conjonctures Economiques (OFCE).
    11. Cleveland, Cutler J. & Ruth, Matthias, 1997. "When, where, and by how much do biophysical limits constrain the economic process?: A survey of Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen's contribution to ecological economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 203-223, September.
    12. Joseph Stiglitz & Amartya K. Sen & Jean-Paul Fitoussi, 2009. "The measurement of economic performance and social progress revisited: Reflections and Overview," Sciences Po Economics Publications (main) hal-01069384, HAL.
    13. Ayres, Robert U., 2008. "Sustainability economics: Where do we stand?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 281-310, September.
    14. Daniel Kahneman & Jack L. Knetsch & Richard H. Thaler, 1991. "Anomalies: The Endowment Effect, Loss Aversion, and Status Quo Bias," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 193-206, Winter.
    15. Bharat Diwakar & Gilad Sorek, 2015. "Economic Development and Stage-Dependent IPR," Auburn Economics Working Paper Series auwp2015-16, Department of Economics, Auburn University.
    16. ., 2015. "Theoretical evolution of economic development," Chapters, in: Introduction to Regional Economic Development, chapter 2, pages 25-35, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. Partha Dasgupta & Geoffrey Heal, 1974. "The Optimal Depletion of Exhaustible Resources," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 41(5), pages 3-28.
    18. Thampapillai, Jesuthason (Dodo) & Sinden, Jack A., 2013. "Environmental Economics: Concepts, Methods and Policies," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, edition 2, number 9780195519556.
    19. Cropper, Maureen L & Oates, Wallace E, 1992. "Environmental Economics: A Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 30(2), pages 675-740, June.
    20. Alan Blinder, 2010. "Teaching Macro Principles after the Financial Crisis," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(4), pages 385-390, September.
    21. Dixon,Huw David & Rankin,Neil, 1995. "The New Macroeconomics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521479479, Enero-Abr.
    22. Robert N. Stavins, 2017. "The Evolution Of Environmental Economics: A View From The Inside," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 62(02), pages 251-274, June.
    23. William Nordhaus, 2015. "Climate Clubs: Overcoming Free-Riding in International Climate Policy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(4), pages 1339-1370, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Qiang Chen & Anush Balian & Mykola Kyzym & Tetiana Salashenko & Inna Gryshova & Viktoriia Khaustova, 2021. "Electricity Markets Instability: Causes of Price Dispersion," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-19, November.
    2. John Chung-En Liu & Yoram Bauman & Yating Chuang, 2019. "Climate Change and Economics 101: Teaching the Greatest Market Failure," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-12, March.
    3. Christy Anderson Brekken & Hikaru Hanawa Peterson & Robert P. King & David Conner, 2018. "Writing a Recipe for Teaching Sustainable Food Systems: Lessons from Three University Courses," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-19, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jacobs Martin, 2016. "Accounting for Changing Tastes: Approaches to Explaining Unstable Individual Preferences," Review of Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 67(2), pages 121-183, August.
    2. Daniel McFadden, 2014. "The new science of pleasure: consumer choice behavior and the measurement of well-being," Chapters, in: Stephane Hess & Andrew Daly (ed.), Handbook of Choice Modelling, chapter 2, pages 7-48, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. L. Venkatachalam, 2025. "Environmental Economics and Ecological Economics: Historical Evolution and the Current Status," Review of Development and Change, , vol. 30(1_suppl), pages 25-49, May.
    4. Lordan, Grace & Stringer, Eliza-Jane, 2022. "People versus machines: The impact of being in an automatable job on Australian worker’s mental health and life satisfaction," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    5. Smulders, J.A., 2005. "Endogenous technological change, natural resources and growth," Other publications TiSEM d6e27500-7604-420f-9961-4, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    6. Nikolova, Milena & Graham, Carol, 2015. "In transit: The well-being of migrants from transition and post-transition countries," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 164-186.
    7. Daniel L. McFadden, 2013. "The New Science of Pleasure," NBER Working Papers 18687, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Jeehoon Han & Caspar Kaiser, 2024. "Time use and happiness: US evidence across three decades," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 37(1), pages 1-25, March.
    9. Thorsten Hens & Ester Trutwin, 2026. "Economics and biodiversity in Switzerland: does sustainable investing help to moderate the problem?," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 162(1), pages 1-20, December.
    10. Heinz Welsch, 2024. "Household Sector Carbon Pricing, Revenue Rebating, and Subjective Well-Being: A Dollar is not a Dollar," Working Papers V-444-24, University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics, revised Apr 2024.
    11. Keval Amin & Erica Harris, 2022. "The Effect of Investor Sentiment on Nonprofit Donations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 175(2), pages 427-450, January.
    12. Greco, Salvatore & Ishizaka, Alessio & Tasiou, Menelaos & Torrisi, Gianpiero, 2018. "σ-µ efficiency analysis: A new methodology for evaluating units through composite indices," MPRA Paper 83569, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Samy Katumba & Julia Kadt & Mark Orkin & Paul Fatti, 2022. "Construction of a Reflective Quality of Life Index for Gauteng Province in South Africa," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 373-408, November.
    14. Roma, Antonio & Pirino, Davide, 2009. "The extraction of natural resources: The role of thermodynamic efficiency," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(10), pages 2594-2606, August.
    15. Tervala, Juha, 2014. "Teaching business cycles with the IS-TR model," MPRA Paper 58992, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Franziska Gassmann & Bruno Martorano & Jennifer Waidler, 2022. "How Social Assistance Affects Subjective Wellbeing: Lessons from Kyrgyzstan," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(4), pages 827-847, April.
    17. Guillermo Cruces, 2005. "Income Fluctuations, Poverty and Well-Being Over Time: Theory and Application to Argentina," Labor and Demography 0502007, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Ulrich Schmidt & Stefan Traub, 2009. "An Experimental Investigation of the Disparity Between WTA and WTP for Lotteries," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 66(3), pages 229-262, March.
    19. Chakraborty, Saptorshee Kanto & Mazzanti, Massimiliano, 2021. "Renewable electricity and economic growth relationship in the long run: Panel data econometric evidence from the OECD," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 330-341.
    20. Nikolova, Milena, 2016. "Minding the happiness gap: Political institutions and perceived quality of life in transition," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 45(S), pages 129-148.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:5:p:1486-:d:145324. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.