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Why economics textbooks must, and how they can, be changed into a real-world and pluralist economics. The example of a fundamentally new complexity-economics micro-textbook

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  • Elsner, Wolfram

Abstract

We argue that economics must, and can, be taught in fundamentally different ways than the simplistic and ideology-laden “economics of x”. We illustrate this with a fundamentally new textbook, “Microeconomics of Complex Economies” (2015). The mainstream’s ambivalence between some relevant research and its simplistic teaching in terms of “optimum”, “equilibrium”, and “market”, and the resulting textbook structure, incoherent between the static and “optimal” equilibrium and some reference to more recent real-world phenomena, will be characterized. We show how this can be changed by showing the process of getting a “heterodox” complexity textbook published, and by the structure of its content.

Suggested Citation

  • Elsner, Wolfram, 2016. "Why economics textbooks must, and how they can, be changed into a real-world and pluralist economics. The example of a fundamentally new complexity-economics micro-textbook," MPRA Paper 73097, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:73097
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kapeller, Jakob, 2013. "‘Model-Platonism’ in economics: on a classical epistemological critique," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(2), pages 199-221, June.
    2. Wolfram Elsner & Frederic S. Lee, 2010. "Editors' Introduction," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(5), pages 1333-1344, November.
    3. David Colander, 2015. "Why economics textbooks should, but don't, and won't, change," European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 12(2), pages 229-235, September.
    4. Sonnenschein, Hugo, 1973. "Do Walras' identity and continuity characterize the class of community excess demand functions?," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 345-354, August.
    5. Wolfram Elsner, 2013. "State and future of the ‘citadel’ and of the heterodoxies in economics: challenges and dangers, convergences and cooperation," European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 10(3), pages 286—298-2, December.
    6. Wolfram Elsner & Fred Lee, 2010. "Assessing economic research and the future of heterodox economics. Failures and alternatives of journals, departments, and scholars rankings," European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 7(1), pages 31-41.
    7. Elsner, Wolfram, 2016. "The Dichotomy, Inconsistency, and Peculiar Outmodedness of the „Mainstream“ Textbook. The Example of Institutions," MPRA Paper 70471, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. McCauley, Joseph L., 2006. "Response to worrying trends in econophysics," MPRA Paper 2129, University Library of Munich, Germany.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    microeconomics; textbooks; teaching economics; heterodoxy; complexity economics; evolutionary economics; institutional economics; game theory; computational economics; history of economic thought.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A11 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Role of Economics; Role of Economists
    • A20 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics - - - General
    • B00 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - General - - - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches
    • C63 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Computational Techniques
    • C70 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - General
    • D00 - Microeconomics - - General - - - General

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