Abstract
This paper proposes the use of class debates in an intermediate-level microeconomics course to introduce early to mid-career undergraduate students to socially embedded and pluralist perspectives, political-economic processes, and policy analyses. Using data from three semesters of class debates in an intermediate microeconomics course, we argue that this activity is a beneficial way to stimulate student interest in social economics, especially in the ethical, political economy, and economic justice aspects of economics and policy. We carried out three allied activities: participation in the debate, a learning self-assessment survey, and a five-page memo providing a balanced analysis of the policy conundrums surrounding the issue under discussion. We discuss three aspects of these class debates relevant to social economists: student attention to processes of knowledge construction, cognizance of power in socioeconomic life, and engagement with economic justice and ethics.
Highlights
Notwithstanding David Colander’s call for the death of ‘neo-classical economics’ (Colander 2000) and recent interventions overhauling the teaching of introductory microeconomics1, many argue that economics teaching does not adequately reflect the strides the discipline has taken in displacing the centrality of neoclassical theory (Colander, Holt and Rosser 2004; Becker 2004)
As discussed in greater detail we found that these activities stimulated significant student interest in, awareness of, and engagement with critiques of the textbook neoclassical model, and introduced students to perspectives rooted in social economics and/or political economy through the post-debate debriefing
The following excerpt from a policy memo on how anti-sweatshop movement (ASM) contribute to improving working conditions, serves to illustrate that students understand the importance of ethics in ensuring wellbeing, and the potential correlation of worker well-being with other favorable economic outcomes, including profitability and the growth of local economies through consumption
Summary
Notwithstanding David Colander’s call for the death of (the term) ‘neo-classical economics’ (Colander 2000) and recent interventions overhauling the teaching of introductory microeconomics, many argue that economics teaching does not adequately reflect the strides the discipline has taken in displacing the centrality of neoclassical theory (Colander, Holt and Rosser 2004; Becker 2004). Recent developments in economics, such as game theory, prospect theory, behavioral and experimental economics, ecological economics, and New Institutionalism among others, alongside existing critiques from Marxian, social, feminist, institutionalist, and post-colonial perspectives, have disputed and disproved foundational neoclassical assumptions of far-sighted and consistent rationality, optimization in resource allocation, and methodological individualism Few of these discussions have found their way into the typical IME curriculum (Colander, Holt and Rosser 2004; Becker 2004; Denis 2009). Extending this typology to teaching IME, we find that an orthodox-plus approach is suitable for instructors of this type With such an approach instructors can provide students with an understanding of the basics of NCE while at the same time laying the foundation for its critical assessment using a social economics lens in terms of tackling real world issues. We turn to the mechanics of implementing the debates and to the engagement with social economics that this activity promotes for students
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