End-of-Course Evaluations as Indicators of Student Learning and Instructor Effectiveness

There are two aspects of this article that readers should find particularly interesting. First, Marlin and Niss provide additional data on the question of student evaluations of professors and courses. Second, they suggest the use of canonical correlation as an ideal way of facing the problems confronted in analyzing the educational production function. The authors assert that “canonical correlation would seem to answer many of the problems encountered in previous single-equation models….” Their research suggests that student evaluations can be used as surrogates for direct evaluations and that the former “do indeed measure the level of teacher input.”     

An Evaluation of Collaborative Problem Solving for Learning Economics

The use of student evaluations of courses and professors has been examined by Professor Kelley in an effort to learn more about the factors that appear to be associated with “good” or “poor” ratings. Using student evaluations of the Principles of Economics course at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Kelly investigated two dependent variables: measures of course evaluation and measures of professor evaluation. Eleven independent variables were included in the analysis, and two different regression models were used. The results are tentative, of course, but the study reveals some interesting findings on the impact of teaching assistants, the student's expectation of his course grade, and the professor's propensity to be generous or niggardly in awarding high grades.     

Some Implications of Student Evaluation of Teachers

Professor Mirus asserts th at there is a need to explore the extent to which student evaluation of teachers is subject to manipulation by the instructor. He comments on the possible impact on teacher ratings of increasing section sizes, scheduling of classes during “odd hours,” the type of material taught, and whether or not the course is required. His statistical analysis revealed that requiring a course had no negative impact, nor did class size, scheduling classes during odd hours, or giving courses a quantitative orientation. There was a “strong indication,” however, that the expected grade was a major determinate of the professor's rating.     

A Preliminary Report on the Efficiency of Introductory Economics Courses

This article is the first report of a project in which the efficiency of the introductory economics course at Queen's University in Canada is being examined. Finding that the TUCE “relies too heavily on a knowledge of U.S. institutions,” Crowley and Wilton assembled a set of questions from several sources (including TUCE items adapted to the Canadian situation). Taking into account the student's initial understanding of economics, sex, major field, student year, the instructor's ability to arouse and maintain interest, and the amount of time spent on the course, the authors employ a regression model with student score on the posttest as the dependent variable. Their findings, although preliminary, add to the growing body of research on the introductory course and suggest some interesting possibilities. Among these possibilities is the fact that some “natural” learning may occur among students not exposed to a formal economics course.     

Evaluations and Grades: A Simultaneous Framework

Using a simultaneous framework and on the basis of data for a single institution, the author concludes that the “oft reported positive effect of student's expected grades on [student evaluation of teaching] in a single equation regression has been misinterpreted” and that “the link between grades and [student evaluations] works in the opposite direction: better faculty improve student performance.”     

Some Evidence on the Value of Instructors in Teaching Economic Principles

Using data collected from three universities, the authors of this article attempt to show that student attitude is “an important dimension of learning” and that the quality of instruction is indeed associated with attitude. The attitude referred to here is that of student opinions toward economics (as measured by Karstensson's “Questionnaire on Student Attitude Toward Economics”) rather than opinions on economic issues. Posttest scores on the TUCE and the attitude instrument were the dependent variables, while scores on the TUCE pretest, ACT scores, sex, major field, economics background, university attended, and quality of instruction were used as independent variables.     

The distance between Buchanan's “An Economic Theory of Clubs” and Tiebout's “A Pure Theory of Local Public Expenditures”. New insights based on an unpublished manuscript

This article introduces Buchanan's comment on Tiebout's “A Pure Theory of Local Public Expenditures”. It helps us to understand the nature of the relationship between Buchanan and Tiebout. Usually, it is claimed that Buchanan modelled Tiebout's insights, that there exists a Buchanan-Tiebout hypothesis, and that Buchanan in 1965 complemented what Tiebout had written in 1956. We show that Buchanan could not have written “An Economic Theory of Clubs” as a complement of “A Pure Theory of Local Public Expenditures”. He disagreed with Tiebout's ideas on mobility because he saw mobility as a cause of inefficiencies and not a cause of homogeneity in groups. This is what we show by putting Buchanan's comment on Tiebout into historical perspective. It appears that Buchanan interpreted Tiebout 1956 from the perspective of his works on fiscal federalism from the early 1950s. We show that there is a continuity between Buchanan's work from the early 1950s and his works in the early 1970s; and Buchanan's way of reading Tiebout is part of it. Hence, when he wrote “An Economic Theory of Clubs”, Buchanan was convinced that Tiebout was wrong and that he was offering an alternative framework for public economics.     

A Note on Attitude as a Factor in Learning Economics

Although one might naturally assume that students interested in economics will learn more in an introductory course than those not interested in the subject, this assumption had to be tested. Using a specially designed “Questionnaire on Student Attitude Toward Economics” on a pretest and posttest basis, and accounting for previous course work, the student's verbal and quantitative skills, and student program requirements, Karstensson and Vedder employed linear multiple regression analysis and found a positive relationship between precourse attitude and course grade. Changes in student attitude which occurred during the course were also analyzed.     

Introduction: Postnational Politics in the European Union

During the Cold War, “buffer” or “bastion” seemed a popular metaphor to describe Turkey. After the Cold War, “bridge,” (and, to some extent, the “crossroad”) metaphor started to dominate the Turkish foreign policy D??course. This article traces the use of “bridge” metaphor in this D??course in the post-Cold War period by the Turkish foreign policy elite. It develops two arguments. First, the word bridge is a “metaphor of vision” combining Turkey's perceived geographical exceptionalism with an identity and a role at the international level. As a “metaphor of vision,” the employment of the word “bridge” highlighted Turkey's liminality and justified some of its foreign policy actions to Eurasia and then to the Middle East. Second, because the bridge metaphor was used in different context to justify different foreign policy choices, its meaning has changed, illustrating that metaphors are not static constructs. It concludes by Say?ng that the continuous use of “bridge” metaphor might reinforce Turkey's “liminality,” placing Turkey in a less classifiable category than the regular “othering” practices.     

TESTING THE BAUMOL–NORDHAUS MODEL WITH EU KLEMS DATA

Baumol's (1967 ) seminal model of structural change predicts that large service industries financed mainly through taxes and social contributions—like health care and education, for instance—will acquire ever‐larger shares of total expenditures and that, concomitantly, overall productivity growth will decline. Applying a new testing strategy for Baumol's model, Nordhaus (2008 ) finds strong evidence in favor of the “cost and growth diseases” in U.S. GDP‐by‐industry data (published by the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis). The aim of the present paper is twofold. The first is to check whether Nordhaus's results can be reproduced using U.S. industry data from the EU KLEMS database. Second, Nordhaus's testing methodology is applied to European Union data from the same database. The results suggest that—although there are differences vis‐à‐vis the U.S.—the EU also shows symptoms of “Baumol's diseases.”     

GLOBALIZATION: CONTENTS AND DISCONTENTS

William Shakespeare's Tragedy of King Richard III, written approximately in 1592, is the story of evil acts by the detested and misshapen hunchback, Richard, who plots to sow discontent among his brother, the King, and others, and has his brother murdered along with other wicked deeds in order to gain the throne. It opens with the line, “Now is the winter of our discontent” (p. 111, ed. Wright 1936). “The Winter of Our Discontent” is also the title of John Steinbeck's (1961) novel of a man who trades his moral convictions to reclaim lost family wealth. “Globalization and Its Discontents” is the title of Joseph Stiglitz's (2002) book that critiques rigid adherence by major economic institutions—such as the International Monetary Fund—to economic orthodoxy in the promotion of globalization. (JEL F6, D72, D3, O23, O24, L17, K33)     

Obedience to the symbol of authority: Experimental evidence on the symbolic source of legitimate authority

The performance of government activities, including law enforcement and regulation, depends on whether citizens perceive them as legitimate. Although substantial studies have explored the institutional sources of legitimacy, how non-institutional factors affect perceived legitimacy remains unclear. Human societies have a long history of employing symbolic icons to enhance the legitimacy of a given authority. This study reports a laboratory experiment of public goods that investigates whether (and to what extent) symbolic factors enhance perceived legitimacy. In the contexts of various incentive schemes and transparency levels, an “authority” in each group decides whether to target a “citizen” for punishment after observing the contributions of “citizens,” and untargeted citizens then choose to support or hinder the authority. A symbolic scepter is issued to the authority in the treated group, whereas this symbol is absent in the control group. The experimental results suggest that the political symbol significantly enhances the authority's legitimacy regardless of the payment scheme and information transparency. A further analysis shows that the political symbol is not associated with the authority's choices regarding enforcement. Rather, the symbol's effect on perceived legitimacy is primarily driven by the citizens' side—that is, the increasing intrinsic tendency to support authority.     

A Discrete-Time Hazard Analysis of the Role of Gender in Persistence in the Economics Major

So much has been done in terms of measuring the impact of economics courses on student knowledge and understanding of facts, concepts and principles, and so little research has dealt with the possible effects on student political attitudes, that this study by Scott and Rothman should be of great interest to economics instructors. The authors address themselves to George Stigler's assertion that “the education of an economist makes the person who receives it more conservative.” They report on the use of their own “Social Opinion Questionnaire” and how it was employed to investigate “the different effects, if any, introductory economics and introductory psychology have on opinions related to economic issues.”     

The moral ecology of markets: on the failure of the amoral defense of markets

Many economists have defended capitalism; most have tried to do so within the self-imposed methodological constraint that economists should employ only empirical arguments, not normative ones. This essay examines three classic amoral defenses of capitalism—by Milton Friedman, James Buchanan, and Friedrich Hayek—and argues that each fails on its own terms, since each implicitly incorporates moral presumptions essential to the author's argument. Constructively, the essay proposes that no one can adequately endorse (or critique) markets without making a moral evaluation of their context—their “moral ecology.” Four issues are identified as necessarily addressed in every adequate evaluation of markets. The essay does not endorse any one position on these elements, but argues instead that seemingly incommensurable standpoints on markets—ranging from Marxist to libertarian—actually represent positions on the these four basic issues.     

Book Reviews

The evaluative function of local public actors has been exacerbated in recent years with the individualisation of social policies. One of their tasks is to select the appropriate informational basis in order to assess welfare claimants. Amartya Sen's capability approach offers a theoretical and normative framework to analyse this evaluative function. In particular, it insists on the importance of “objectivating” people's preferences with reference to their capabilities. The weight that is to be attached to individual preferences in the course of public action can be a matter of controversy. Claimants “capability for voice”, we argue, should be developed. This capability refers to their effective possibility to express their concerns with regard to the choice of the informational basis. It is argued that local institutions prohibiting capability for voice will produce adaptive preferences, whereas procedural institutions promoting reflexive public evaluation and capability for voice will result in a fairer wording of individual preferences. At a situated level, the way to connect subjective and objective information when assessing people very much depends on the position of the evaluator. Several illustrations show that the fairness of evaluation, and its impact on the people's capability set, depend on this positional perspective.     

Social network structure and status competition

In status competition studies, the utility of heterogeneous individuals typically depends on an economy‐wide average indicator of status. In our model, emulative and jealous agents are embedded in an exogenous network where agent‐specific reference group is determined by the direct link emanating from the agent. Similarly to Ghiglino and Goyal (2010) but in a somewhat different framework, we show that individual consumption is proportional to the agent's “outbound” Katz‐Bonacich network centrality measure and equilibrium is generally inefficient. More important, the negative externality associated with each agent depends on her “inbound” centrality measure—the conspicuousness index. A tax based on this index combined with a uniform lump‐sum transfer attains efficiency.     

COPYRIGHT AND BRANDS IN THE DIGITAL AGE: INTERNALIZING THE EXTERNALITIES OF MEANING

The adoption of binary code as the universal standard for globalized communications generates highly positive externalities of the kind often referred to as “network effects.” But what about meaning? What are the externalities associated with the formatting and circulation of meaning, and are they all positive? Within the digital paradigm, is it really possible to separate the notion of expression—covered by copyright—from the meanings conveyed? Isn't meaning closely related to the concept of brand? And on that assumption, how do copyright and trademark institutions work together to stimulate and promote the generation of meaningful information? To answer these questions, we will look at how the meaningful forms of expression—the “works”—that have historically been covered by copyright generate specific types of externality, both positive and negative, giving rise to both incentive and censorship mechanisms. We will then show how the institutions of copyright and author's rights that allow the appropriation of a meaning‐dependent good also confer a brand on it by identifying its sources. This leads to cross‐externalities between works of expression and publishing brands, with the result that copyright and trademark institutions cannot be completely separated from each other. (JEL K11, L5, L82, B25)     

Whither Keynesian probability? Impolite techniques for decision-making

The critical literature on Keynes has provided extensive analysis of why individual agents may find convenient to adopt a “conventional judgement”, and what he meant by “polite techniques” used to save their faces as “rational, economic men.” This paper concentrates instead on impolite techniques of thought suited to deal with Keynesian uncertainty. The paper suggests that the thread going from Keynes's Treatise on Probability to the General Theory and its defence provides a positive analysis of decision-making under uncertainty, and that placing emphasis on this positive analysis simply means adhering to Keynes's long-standing commitment to a (surely peculiar) probabilistic set-up.     

Online Discussion and Learning Outcomes

This paper describes how we used Facebook as a discussion tool in the instruction of a principles level economics course and reports empirical estimates of the affect of that use on learning outcomes. Social media as a tool for promoting classroom discussion has advantages and disadvantages. For example, its omnipresence and flat learning curve can promote academic discourse. However social media can promote nonacademic “chatting”, and its omnipresence means the user needs more than a passing knowledge of the privacy settings to have control of their “digital identity”. For a Principles of Microeconomics taught in 2011 we collected data, with permission from our institution’s Institutional Review Board, on student use of Facebook, academic and demographic characteristics, learning style preferences and learning outcomes. Our research hypothesis is that an empirical analysis will find a positive correlation between student in-class use of Facebook and learning outcomes. Among our findings are that students should receive more coaching on the use of privacy settings, and qualified evidence that there is a positive net effect on learning outcomes of using Facebook as a discussion tool.     

A New Look at the High School Economics Texts

Townshend-Zellner shows that, as a group, high school economics texts have improved substantially during the last decade. “It is now possible,” he asserts, “to recommend to high schools a significant number of texts … which substantially meet the minimum criteria set by the canons of our professional discipline.” There are still problems, however, in that “… the quality of the acceptable texts now runs strongly ahead of the typical teacher's preparation in economics.”