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What Should We Be Teaching in Basic Economics Courses?

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  • James Gwartney

Abstract

Advanced Placement economics leaves thousands of high school students with a misleading impression of modern economics. The courses fail to cover key sources of growth and prosperity, including private ownership, dynamic competition, and entrepreneurship. The tools of public choice economics are totally ignored. Government is modeled as a corrective device available to impose ideal solutions. Market failure is covered, but there is no such thing as government failure. The macroeconomics course reflects the simplistic 1960s Keynesian view of stabilization policy. Time lags, incentive effects, secondary effects of budget deficits, and other factors that complicate effective use of stabilization policy are almost entirely ignored. In contrast, the 20 Voluntary National Content Standards in Economics of the Council for Economic Education illustrate what a balanced course in modern economics would look like.

Suggested Citation

  • James Gwartney, 2012. "What Should We Be Teaching in Basic Economics Courses?," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(3), pages 300-307, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jeduce:v:43:y:2012:i:3:p:300-307
    DOI: 10.1080/00220485.2012.686398
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Dalton, John & Logan, Andrew, 2019. "A Vision for a Dynamic World: Reading Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy for Today," MPRA Paper 95012, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. repec:zbw:inwedp:552014 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. John T. Dalton & Andrew J. Logan, 2022. "Teaching and learning Schumpeter: A dialogue between professor and student," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 35(2), pages 235-256, June.
    4. Dalton, John T. & Logan, Andrew J., 2022. "The Man Who Discovered Capitalism: A documentary on Schumpeter for use in the classroom," International Review of Economics Education, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    5. Marie Briguglio & Charity-Joy Acchiardo & Dirk Mateer & Wayne Geerling, 2020. "Behavioral economics in film: Insights for educators," Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy, Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics (SABE), vol. 4(1), pages 17-28, December.
    6. Michael Makovi, 2015. "George Orwell as a Public Choice Economist," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 60(2), pages 183-208, September.
    7. John T. Dalton & Andrew J. Logan, 2021. "Schumpeter in Vienna: A Study Abroad Course," Contributions to Economics, in: Joshua Hall & Kim Holder (ed.), Off-Campus Study, Study Abroad, and Study Away in Economics, chapter 0, pages 175-190, Springer.
    8. John T. Dalton & Andrew J. Logan, 2020. "Using the movie Joy to teach innovation and entrepreneurship," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(3-4), pages 287-296, August.
    9. James Gwartney & Jane S. Shaw, 2013. "What Should Be Taught and Learned in Economics Classes (and Is It?)," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 29(Fall 2013), pages 73-86.
    10. Martin Kniepert, 2014. "Die (Neue) Institutionenökonomik als Ansatz für einen erweiterten, offeneren Zugang zur Volkswirtschaftslehre," Working Papers 552014, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Department of Economics and Social Sciences, Institute for Sustainable Economic Development.

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