IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/fosoec/v38y2009i2-3p135-151.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do Professors’ Opinions Affect Students?

Author

Listed:
  • Christopher Magee

Abstract

This paper estimates the effect that professors’ opinions have on changes in student opinions during introductory economics classes. The paper shows that students are more likely to change their opinion during the course of the semester if their initial response differs from that of the professor, and this result emerges even after controlling for students’ tendency to move toward the consensus opinion held by all the economics professors. Students are also more likely to change their opinions if they differ from the opinions of their classmates, and the estimates show that in the aggregate, classmate opinions matter more than professor opinions do. The data also show that students choose which section to attend at least partly based on how closely their pre-class opinions match those of the professor. These results have important implications for both heterodox and orthodox economists.

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher Magee, 2009. "Do Professors’ Opinions Affect Students?," Forum for Social Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(2-3), pages 135-151, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:fosoec:v:38:y:2009:i:2-3:p:135-151
    DOI: 10.1007/s12143-008-9025-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s12143-008-9025-6
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12143-008-9025-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Janet T. Knoedler & Daniel A. Underwood, 2003. "Teaching the Principles of Economics: A Proposal for a Multi-paradigmatic Approach," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(3), pages 697-725, September.
    2. William B. Walstad, 1997. "The Effect of Economic Knowledge on Public Opinion of Economic Issues," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(3), pages 195-205, September.
    3. Geoff Schneider & Jean Shackelford, 2001. "Economics Standards and Lists: Proposed Antidotes for Feminist Economists," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(2), pages 77-89.
    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. Offer Moshe Shapir & Michal H. Shapir‐Tidhar & Zeev Shtudiner, 2023. "Priming effect across framing, culture, and gender: Evidence from the academia," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(7), pages 3758-3768, October.

    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. Christopher Magee, 2009. "Do Professors’ Opinions Affect Students?," Forum for Social Economics, Springer;The Association for Social Economics, vol. 38(2), pages 135-151, July.
    2. Bernd Hayo & Florian Neumeier, 2017. "Public Attitudes toward Fiscal Consolidation: Evidence from a Representative German Population Survey," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 70(1), pages 42-69, February.
    3. Geoffrey Schneider, 2009. "Teaching Heterodox Economics: Introduction to the Special Issue," Forum for Social Economics, Springer;The Association for Social Economics, vol. 38(2), pages 91-96, July.
    4. Horodecka, Anna & Śliwińska, Magdalena, 2019. "Fair Trade phenomenon – limits of neoclassical and chances of heterodox economics," Studia z Polityki Publicznej / Public Policy Studies, Warsaw School of Economics, vol. 6(3), pages 1-29, July.
    5. Vranceanu, Radu & Barthélémy, Jérôme, 2011. "Knowledge in economics and economic reform : An analysis of French survey data," ESSEC Working Papers WP1103, ESSEC Research Center, ESSEC Business School.
    6. Jorge Iván González, 2004. "La dicotomía micro-macro no es pertinente," Revista de Economía Institucional, Universidad Externado de Colombia - Facultad de Economía, vol. 6(11), pages 73-95, July-Dece.
    7. Hayat, Muhammad Azmat & Farvaque, Etienne, 2012. "Public attitudes towards central bank independence: Lessons from the foundation of the ECB," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 512-523.
    8. Brian Lucey & Michael Daly, 2013. "What Do The Irish Know About Economics," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp432, IIIS.
    9. Klein, Alina F. & Klein, Rudolf F., 2023. "Principles of Economics, the Survivor Edition," Applied Economics Teaching Resources (AETR), Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 5(2), March.
    10. Joanna Osińska, 2013. "Postawy wobec euro i ich determinanty," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 10, pages 39-67.
    11. Hainmueller, Jens & Hiscox, Michael J., 2006. "Learning to Love Globalization: Education and Individual Attitudes Toward International Trade," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 60(2), pages 469-498, April.
    12. Hayo, Bernd & Neuenkirch, Edith, 2014. "The German public and its trust in the ECB: The role of knowledge and information search," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 286-303.
    13. Barbara Bechter & Bernd Brandl & Gerhard Schwarz, 2009. "Determinanten der Einstellung zu wirtschaftspolitischen Maßnahmen," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 37321.
    14. Bernd Hayo & Florian Neumeier, 2019. "Public Preferences for Government Spending Priorities: Survey Evidence from Germany," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 20(4), pages 1-37, November.
    15. Roger White & Richard Clark, 2009. "Political Affiliation And Perceptions Of Trade: Examining Survey Data From The State Of Georgia," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 27(2), pages 176-192, April.
    16. Radu Vranceanu & Jérôme Barthélemy, 2011. "Knowledge in economics and economic reform : an analysis of French survey data," Post-Print hal-00592114, HAL.
    17. Isabel Busom & Cristina Lopez-Mayan & Judith Panadés, 2017. "Students' persistent preconceptions and learning economic principles," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(2), pages 74-92, April.
    18. Amélie Goossens & Pierre-Guillaume Méon, 2015. "The Belief that Market Transactions Are Mutually Beneficial: A Comparison of the Views of Students in Economics and Other Disciplines," Post-Print CEB, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles, vol. 46(2), pages 121-134, April.
    19. Bryan Caplan, 2006. "How do voters form positive economic beliefs? Evidence from the Survey of Americans and Economists on the Economy," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 128(3), pages 367-381, September.
    20. Beatrice Magistro, 2022. "The influence of financial and economic literacy on policy preferences in Italy," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(2), pages 351-381, July.

    More about this item

    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:taf:fosoec:v:38:y:2009:i:2-3:p:135-151. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RFSE20 .

    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.