Attributes of Effective Economics Instructors: An Analysis of Student Evaluations

Samuels reminds us of the influence that institutional economists have had on economic thought, and of the roles they have played as critics and specialists in various fields of economic inquiry.     

Using Field Experiments to Change the Template of How We Teach Economics

In this article, the author explains why field experiments can improve what we teach and how we teach economics. Economists no longer operate as passive observers of economic phenomena. Instead, they participate actively in the research process by collecting data from field experiments to investigate the economics of everyday life. This change can be shown to students by presenting them with evidence from field experiments. Field experiments related to factor markets, behavioral economics, and discrimination are presented to explain how this approach works across different economic content. The three questions that are highlighted are the following: (1) Why do women get paid less than men in labor markets? (2) How can we use behavioral economics to motivate teachers? (3) What seven words can end third-degree price discrimination?     

Two Sides of the Same Coin: Re-examining Nepotism and Discrimination in a Segmented Society

Abstract

We report the results from a series of trust games designed to distinguish racial discrimination from racial nepotism, played with a sample of high school students in Cape Town, South Africa. In contrast to the original work in this regard by Fershtman et al. (2005 Fershtman, C., Gneezy, U. and Verboven, F. 2005. “Discrimination and Nepotism: the efficiency of the anonymity rule,”. Journal of Legal Studies, 34: 371–396. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), we find considerably greater heterogeneity in the way that proposers respond to the revealed racial identity of their partner, with nepotism being a dominant behavior. However, while some proposers exhibit a nepotistic bias in their offers that favors in-group members on average, others exhibit a nepotistic strategy that favors out-group members. A consequence of this nepotism is that both efficiency and equity are reduced on average.     

Ecology,Sustainability, and Care: Developments in the Field

Over the past three decades, scholars and activists have been attempting to enrich the field of economics with both feminist and ecological perspectives. This essay reviews some highlights of such efforts, describes the current state of the field (particularly in regard to notions of “care”), and introduces a short symposium.     

A Course in Economic Forecasting: Rationale and Content

This note shows that the impact of an increase in product price on factor demand in the typical textbook depiction is overstated to the point of indicating that competitive firms demand factors even when marginal product is negative.     

Holding back from theory: limits and methodological alternatives of randomized field experiments in development economics

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we critically and constructively examine the methodology of evidence-based development economics, which deploys randomized field experiments (RFEs) as its main tool. We describe the context in which this movement started, and illustrate in detail how RFEs are designed and implemented in practice, drawing on a series of experiments by Pascaline Dupas and her colleagues on the use of bednets, saving and governance in Kenya. We show that this line of experiments have evolved to address the limitation of obtaining policy-relevant insights from RFEs alone, characterized as their lack of external validity in the literature. After examining the two prominent responses by leading figures of evidence-based development economics, namely machine learning and structured speculation, we propose an alternative methodological strategy that incorporates two sub-fields, namely experimental economics and behavioral economics, to complement RFEs in investigating the data-generating process underlying the treatment effects of RFEs. This strategy highlights promising methodological developments in RFEs neither captured by the two proposals nor recognized by methodologists, and also guides how to combine different sub-fields of economics.     

个体创造力的跨层次影响因素:个体目标取向与团队自省

个体创造力是团队成功乃至组织获得竞争优势的源泉,从多个层次综合考察个体创造力的影响因素具有重要意义。基于目标取向理论与个体—情境互动理论,将团队自省纳入个体目标取向对个体创造力影响的研究中。通过对72个研发团队(含364个团队成员)样本的调查分析,得出实证研究结果:个体学习目标取向和绩效证明目标取向都对个体创造力具有显著的正向影响,且团队自省可以显著调节(增强)其对个体创造力的影响作用;个体绩效回避取向对个体创造力具有显著的负向影响,且团队自省可以显著调节(减弱)个体绩效回避取向对个体创造力的影响作用。     

双创背景下个体成就目标导向对创业倾向及新创企业创新能力的影响

双创是促进经济转型发展的重要引擎,因而研究创业者特质具有重要的理论与现实意义。基于成就目标理论,探讨了个体成就目标类型对创业倾向及新创企业创新能力的影响。结果表明：学习目标导向的个体比表现目标的个体具有更强的创业倾向,创业企业的创新能力相对更强;表现-趋近目标的个体比表现-回避目标的个体创业倾向更强;从创业领域看,表现-回避目标创业者的创业企业创新能力较低。鉴于此,未来创业政策设计应注重引导个体形成适合创业行为的成就目标,合理选择创业行业,以提高创业成功率和新创企业技术含量。     

Estimating Risk Attitudes in Denmark: A Field Experiment*

We estimate individual risk attitudes using controlled experiments in the field in Denmark. The experiments were carried out across Denmark using a representative sample of 253 people between 19 and 75 years of age. Risk attitudes are estimated for various individuals differentiated by socio‐demographic characteristics. Our results indicate that the average Dane is risk averse, and that risk neutrality is an inappropriate assumption to apply. We also find that risk attitudes vary significantly with respect to several important socio‐demographic variables such as age and education. However, we do not find any effect of sex on risk attitudes.     

Field Experiments in a Course on Behavioral Economics: Nudging Students Around Campus

In experiential education, the student learns through experience by observing a concept or phenomenon and applying this knowledge in a real-world context. A research project conducted by undergraduate students at a U.S. private liberal arts college is described in this article. The project provided opportunity for students to think about their decision-making processes, compare them to existing literature, and apply this knowledge in examining their own hypotheses through primary data collection on campus. While the research design's simplicity ensured that the project could be completed in time for a final grade and sacrificed lecture material in favor of feedback opportunities, this behavioral field experiment was a rewarding experience because of students’ enthusiasm and their ability to defend and think critically of their own ideas.     

Returns to skills,incentives to study and optimal educational standards

In imperfectly competitive labor markets returns to skills are lower than their productivity and educational standards may play an important role in stimulating students to provide efforts. We propose a principal-agent model to analyze the determinants of student effort and the setting of standards by a policy-maker maximizing alternative social welfare functions. We show that if the policy-maker takes into account individuals' future earnings, he finds it optimal to set lower standards in more distorted labor markets, whereas higher standards would be preferable for efficiency reasons. Moreover, we show that labor market distortions may also influence the amount of resources devoted to schools. Finally, it is shown that standard setting may be useful in preventing the opportunism of school principals in the use of resources.      

创造力与员工创新：上下级关系与目标导向的调节作用

创造力如何高效转化为员工创新是管理实践普遍面临的问题。依据社会认知理论,通过对4家国有企业管理者及其下属进行问卷调查,探讨了上下级关系和目标导向对创造力与员工创新的调节作用。结果发现：学习目标导向对创造力与员工创新存在显著的正向调节效应;企业上下级关系显著负向调节创造力与员工创新关系;目标导向与上下级关系交互调节创造力与员工创新,其中学习目标导向减弱了上下级关系对创造力与员工创新的负向调节作用,证明目标导向增强了上下级的负向调节效应。该结果揭示了创造力与员工创新的复杂权变关系,可为组织管理者科学有效管理创造力与员工创新提供理论启示与实践指导。     

Choosing Your Object of Benevolence: A Field Experiment on Donation Options*

In a large natural field experiment, we explore the effect of providing donors with the opportunity of choosing the target country for their donations. We find that our treatment manipulation affects neither the average donation size nor the response rate. Only a small fraction of donors (3.5 percent) actually choose their object of benevolence. These donors give more than those who do not specify a recipient. However, based on previous donations, we can only provide indicative evidence that this might be a causal effect rather than a mere selection effect.     

个体目标取向与团队心理安全交互对个体知识共享的影响

知识经济和“互联网+”快速发展,知识共享成为组织获取前进动力的主要方式以及组织竞争优势的重要来源。结合目标取向理论与特征激活理论,将团队心理安全纳入到个体目标取向对个体知识共享影响的研究中。对120个研发团队（含485个团队成员）样本的调查分析结果表明,个体学习目标取向与证明取向都显著正向影响个体知识共享,且团队心理安全在两者关系间具有显著的正向调节作用;个体回避取向显著负向影响个体知识共享,团队心理安全在两者关系间具有显著负向调节作用。     

Labor Market Experiment

This experiment involves having students search in a hypothetical job market for jobs paying wages in a known range but an unknown wage distribution. Different trials change variables to allow for search costs, unemployment insurance, recessions, and investment in human capital.     

学习目标导向对员工创新的影响：基于元分析的心理与行为机制

学习目标导向会对员工心理和行为产生影响进而影响员工创新,有必要厘清其作用机制和边界条件。整合社会认知理论与知识管理理论,运用元分析结构方程模型,定量化综合检验关于学习目标导向与员工创新关系的84份实证研究文献。结果显示：学习目标导向与员工创新显著正相关,团队层面的正向影响比员工个体层面更强;创新自我效能感、知识共享在学习目标导向与员工创新之间存在链式中介作用,即创新自我效能感通过激发知识共享促进员工创新;员工特征、企业特征、文化背景等情境因素,以及测量工具、测量方法等测量因素,均显著影响学习目标导向与员工创新之间的关系。     

Public Finance,Public Economics,and Public Choice: A Survey of Undergraduate Textbooks

The changing scope and approaches in the public finance courses as reflected in a spectrum of undergraduate texts are reviewed. The major texts are examined for content, difficulty, and ideology.     

全面理解人力资本的经济价值——教育经济学与培训经济学的融合

教育经济学不应只是正规学校教育的经济学,在终身学习的理念下,正规学校教育的结束并不意味着学习步伐的停滞和人力资本投资的终结。教育经济学未来拓展的路径,除了理论基础上的外延式发展外,还可以在原有的人力资本理论框架内走一条内涵式发展的道路,即强调综合考察人力资本投资的多种途径,特别是教育和培训这两种最主要的人力资本投资形式,让教育经济学走出正规学校教育经济学的固有领地,团结在人力资本理论的名义下,与培训经济学融合,走向人力资源开发研究的广阔天地,惟其如此,才能全面、深入地研究人力资本的经济价值及其实现机制。     

Information and College Access: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment*

High‐school students from disadvantaged high schools in Toronto were invited to take two surveys, about three weeks apart. Half of the students taking the first survey were also shown a three‐minute video about the benefits of post‐secondary education (PSE) and were invited to try out a financial‐aid calculator. Most students’ perceived returns to PSE were high, even among those not expecting to continue. Those exposed to the video, especially those initially unsure about their own educational attainment, reported significantly higher expected returns and lower concerns about costs, and expressed a greater likelihood of PSE attainment.     

Teaching Economic Principles Interactively: A Cannibal's Dinner Party

The author describes techniques that he uses to interactively teach economics principles. He describes an experiment on market entry and gives examples of applications of classroom clickers. Clicker applications include (a) collecting data about student preferences that can be used to construct demand curves and supply curves, (b) checking students’ knowledge of central concepts, and (c) playing interactive games that illustrate economic concepts.