Tag Archives: econ 101

My fundamental understanding of the world has been warped by a now challenged approach. I'm not alone.… In the end, the chief byproduct of my general education exposure was a kind of indoctrination into the centrality of markets to understanding human behavior and the apparent importance of economics professors. I’m not alone. Introductory economics could be one of the most widely received credits in all of higher education. And unlike other common courses (like say, first-year writing),...

All across the United States, students are settling into college – and coming to grips with “Econ 101.” This introductory course is typically taught with a broadly reassuring message: if markets are allowed to work, good outcomes – such as productivity growth, increasing wages, and generally shared prosperity – will surely follow. Unfortunately, as my co-author James Kwak points out in his recent book, Economism: Bad Economics and the Rise of Inequality, Econ 101 is so far from being the...

I’ve finally committed to delivering a manuscript of my long-overdue book Economics in Two Lessons. As part of the process, I’m going to post the chapters, one at a time, and ask for comments, criticism, encouragement and so on. To begin at the beginning, here’s the Introduction. Crooked TimberEconomics in Two LessonsJohn Quiggin | Professor and an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow at the University of Queensland, and a member of the Board of the Climate Change Authority of the...

Pramit Bhattacharya quote.  Double significant since it is a signal of rising criticism of the profession coming from outside the Anglo-American world that is presently dominant. Hopefully, this is a sign that this domination of ideas and methods will not spread and will be balanced soon. Lars P. Syll’s BlogSeven sins of economicsLars P. Syll | Professor, Malmo University

Sooo…I have a bit of a confession to make- I’ve established a bit of a cottage industry tutoring students in the course I taught while I was in grad school. Not gonna lie, it’s pretty nice to be seen as an advocate as opposed to the thing between the student and the grade that the student wants, in part because students are more willing to admit what they find confusing to me than to their “real” instructors. As a related project, I figured it would make sense to create videos for the items...

Our intro courses fail to reflect the dramatic advances in economics – concerning information problems and strategic interactions, for example – since Samuelson’s paradigm-setting 1948 textbook. Missing, too, is any sustained engagement with new problems we now confront and on which economics has important insights for public policy – climate change, innovation, instability and growing inequality amongst them. This column introduces a free online interactive text – now used as the standard...

Every few years, I teach (in addition to ec 10) a freshman seminar for about a dozen students. The seminar is essentially a book group for students who are taking introductory economics concurrently or who have advanced placement credit in economics. Here is a list of this year's books: Greg Mankiw's BlogA Reading List Greg Mankiw | Robert M. Beren Professor of Economics at Harvard University

So I’m not entirely clear on what The Onion is making fun of here, but I have a couple hypotheses: 1. (more obvious) If polls are to be believed, the economy immediately improved once Trump got elected. Yes, this seems absurd if taken literally, but I guess this is what the concept of “animal spirits” is supposed to be all about. If enough people believe that Trump will be good for the economy and act accordingly, it kind of becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. But it still doesn’t happen...

Rivalry in consumption: the degree to which one person consuming a good makes it more difficult for another person to fully consume the same unit of the goodUsage: A good generally exhibits high or low rivalry in consumption.Examples: A fireworks display exhibits low rivalry in consumption. An ice cream cone exhibits high rivalry in consumption. (Alternate phrasing: An ice-cream cone exhibits rivalry in consumption.)See also:THIS VIDEO IS SACRED… ? pic.twitter.com/o7ivZtJf8x— Life on...