Abstract
In this paper, we explore how principles of economics courses prepare undergraduate students to think about climate change. We collected a comprehensive list of twenty-seven introductory economics textbooks in the United States and analyzed their coverage of climate change. Our finding shows that not all texts touch upon climate science, and a small subset deviates from the scientific consensus on the human causes of climate change. All texts conceptualize climate change as a problem of carbon emission’s negative externalities and the preferred market-based solutions, such as emission trading and Pigouvian tax. Besides externality, some authors include various useful points of engagement through GDP (Gross domestic product) accounting, economic growth, collective action problems, cost–benefit analysis, and global inequality. In the end, we provide suggestions for economics educators to innovate the current introductory curriculum to better cope with the climate crisis.
Highlights
Among all social sciences, economics is considered as the most politically powerful discipline, exerting influences through its professional authority, institutional positions in the government, and cognitive infrastructure of policymaking [1,2]
Our analysis demonstrates that the current coverage of climate change is quite narrowly focused: For most texts, climate change only appears in the “externalities” or “environmental economics” chapters
To interpret what counts as “relevant” to climate change, we looked at the coverage of climate change science, the economic analysis of climate change, as well as segments that related to climate policies
Summary
Economics is considered as the most politically powerful discipline, exerting influences through its professional authority, institutional positions in the government, and cognitive infrastructure of policymaking [1,2]. For economics educators who prefer a balanced and wide treatment of climate change in their textbook, this paper provides an overview of the accuracy and scope of this topic across a wide range of commonly used textbooks. This content analysis was first conceived by one of the authors, Yoram Bauman, in 2000, when he was shocked by a textbook describing global warming as a hoax. The reviews have led to some lively discussions and, in some cases, to actual changes in textbook contents [15,16,17,18] Based on his qualitative analyses, Bauman (2017) concludes that “the treatment of climate change in economics textbooks is getting better.”. We will provide some thoughts on options for innovation
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