How Departments of Economics Evaluate Teaching

Based on results from a 1999 national survey, William Becker and Michael Watts found that student evaluations of teaching were by far the most widely used, and often the only method used by economics departments, to evaluate teaching in undergraduate economics courses. To investigate whether departments of economics have moved beyond the use of student evaluations of teaching, in 2011 the current authors conducted a national survey of departments based largely on questions used in the 1999 survey. The surveys included items on how courses and teaching are evaluated, and on how that information is used in departmental promotion and salary decisions.     

Student Evaluations of Teaching and the Cognitive Level of Economics Courses

The Journal of Economic Education of Fall 1973 was devoted to the subject of student evaluations of teachers. That issue has engendered a great many papers, only a few of which can be published in the JEE because of space limitations. Michael Everett's report is not a mere replication of previous research on the subject, but adds a new dimension—the possible effect of student evaluations on the cognitive level of college economics courses. His finding that students may favor professors who emphasize lower level cognitive material will surely be distressing to many teachers, and should cause sober reflection on the part of administrators and others involved in establishing faculty evaluation procedures and policies.     

经济学的困境与行为经济学的解构

行为经济学在当代的发展已经突破了正统经济学的基本框架,开始对情感、策略互动行为、社会效用、决策者在未知世界中的选择行为进行系统研究,并在最近几年综合形成了多种由理性系统和非理性系统组成的双系统模型.这些双系统模型与2 000多年前的柏拉图马车模型同构.经济学研究对柏拉图的回归,表明经济学仍然处于单极化本质主义的结构化陷阱之中.研究分析表明,经济学发展目前面临的困境,正是经济学转向关系论,走上希望之路的起点.     

Test Information: An Application of the Economics of Search

The author reports on an experiment that permits cheating behavior to be observed rather than self-reported as in a questionnaire survey. In two sections of a course examined on the same day, 50 percent of the questions were repeated on the second exam. It was found that an average of 36 percent of the students on the second test had used information acquired from the first test. Several predictions about cheating behavior were tested by a multivariate technique. The main result was to be expected: majors, better students, and those voluntarily in the course cheated relatively less. But working students also cheated less.

The author does not think this behavior, although not considered “serious” cheating, is entirely victimless, and calls into question the equity of grades.     

A Student Learning Inventory for Economics Based on the Students' Experience of Learning: A Preliminary Study

The authors present the initial development of a student learning inventory (SLI) that is specific to economics. This approach, which is based on the student experience of learning (SEL) literature, emphasizes aspects of prior knowledge in the learning history of entering first-year students. Preliminary insights from a first SLI suggest that on entry to university, students show considerable variation in their perceptions of what economics is and what economists do. From the SEL perspective, such variation affects student learning. It is argued that continued development of an economic-specific SLI may result in a better understanding of students' learning engagement with economics and ultimately assist instructors in better understanding student learning difficulties and increase student success in first-year economics.     

行为经济学中的公平和互惠

在经济学里,均与寡,牵涉到人类社会两种最基本和重要的活动,那就是生活资源的生产和分配。人们对于公平的认识和体会,在现实生活中屡见不鲜。用行为经济学的研究方法来探索公平问题,并将其分析纳入社会经济发展和人类伦理学的交叉领域,对个人、家庭,乃至社会和国家的稳定、发展都有着极其重要的研究意义和参考价值。     

The Role of Personality Temperament and Student Learning in Principles of Economics: Further Evidence

This note offers some critical comments on a previously published article ranking economics departments.     

Learning Objectives and Testing: An Analysis of Six Principles of Economics Textbooks,Using Bloom's Taxonomy

This study applies Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives to six principles of economics textboks and the accompanying instructor's manuals to determine whether the test banks provided are likely to measure the textbooks' stated objectives. The study finds significant discrepancies between the stated objectives of most textbooks and the instruments included in the instructor's manuals to measure student achievement.     

Richard Thaler and the Rise of Behavioral Economics

Richard Thaler was awarded the 2017 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for his contributions to behavioral economics. In this article, I review and discuss these contributions.     

Accounting for the Rise and Fall in the Number of Economics Majors with the Discouraged-Business-Major Hypothesis

Between 1978 and 1994, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill experienced a cycle in the number of economics degrees it conferred that was more pronounced than that experienced nationally. A random sample of UNC economics majors between 1983 and 1994 showed that students screened out of the business curriculum made an economics major their second choice.     

An Approach to Testing the Effectiveness of the Teaching and Learning of Economics in High School

Based on data on students in a college economics principles course over a nine-year period, the authors conclude that high school economics does improve performance in the principles course but does not influence grades in intermediate theory classes.     

新古典经济学及公司合同理论质疑

以新古典经济学为基础,波斯纳对法律制度进行了全面的经济分析。而伊斯特布鲁克和费希尔则是公司法经济分析的代表。其缔造的公司合同理论,贯彻了市场本位的价格理论,认为公司是合同的联结,法律制度无关紧要。新古典经济学及公司合同理论远离经济现实,受到新制度经济学及其他学派的挑战。     

Stranded Costs,Takings, and the Law and Economics of Implicit Contracts

Economic Analysis can help resolve the stranded cost controversy that has arisen in debates over electricity market deregulation. "Stranded costs" are costs electric utilities will not recover as power markets move from protected monopolies to an open, competitive environment. We describe the stranded cost problem, its magnitude and the prominent arguments for and against recovery. An economic analysis of implicit contracts can clarify whether there should be a legal duty to compensate utility shareholders for unrecovered costs. However, efficient approaches to electricity deregulation should rely on more than analysis of contracts. The politics of deregulation, as reflected in optimal compensation for regulatory "takings" of property, also affects the desirability of stranded cost recovery.     

Teachers' Unions and Student Achievement in High School Economics

High school students in unionized schools score higher on the Test of Economic Literacy than students in nonunion districts, ceteris paribus.     

Quasi-Experimental Evidence of Peer Effects in First-Year Economics Courses at a Chinese University

The authors of this article implement a quasi-experimental strategy to estimate peer effects in economic education by exploiting the institutional setting in a large public university in China, where roommates are randomly assigned conditional on a student's major and province of origin. They found significant impacts of peer academic quality, measured as roommates’ average scores on the national College Entrance Exam, on first-year economics students’ scores in first-year microeconomics, macroeconomics, and accounting courses. They also found nonlinearity in peer effects: Roommates’ academic ability has significant effects for academically weak students but not for academically strong students.     

A Model of Economics Learning in the High Schools

The effectiveness of the Developmental Economic Education Project (DEEP) of the Joint Council of Economic Education (JCEE) and the International Paper Company Foundation (IPCF) awards program for teaching economics is evaluated in this article. The effects these programs have on achievement in economics (ACH), attitudes towards economics as a subject (ATE), and economic attitude sophistication (EAS) are observed. The authors' study shows that DEEP schools had a positive effect on students in these three areas. The results of the IPCF program are less encouraging with students actually showing less economic understanding as a consequence of being taught by an award winning teacher.     

Research in Economic Education and the Teaching of Economics

Input cost and output value are depicted in a diagram of vertical slices of the production function surface.     

马克思主义政治经济学与西方经济学教学关系刍议

改革开放的实践告诉我们,不搞市场经济,中国无法提高生产力水平;不坚持社会主义方向,中国无法消除两极分化、达到共同富裕。高校如何开好马克思主义政治经济学和西方经济学这两门课,关系到中国特色社会主义事业的接班人和建设者综合素质,关系到国家的命运和前途。为此,笔者认为,首先要准确把握好这两门课的性质和功能,摆正二者的位置,处理好二者的关系;然后要对教学内容、教学环节、教学方法作一些大胆的改进。最重要的一点,是对担任这两门课的教师,要实行＂准入制＂。