The Nobel Prize Economics Lectures as a Teaching Tool

Because Nobel Prize economics lectures are written for various purposes and cover a range of topics at different levels of difficulty, the author uses them to add rigor and relevancy to an economics course.     

Using Writing as a Tool for Learning Economics

Suggestions are offered on how to use writing as a way of involving students as active participants in the learning process, with sample assignments included.     

Social Provisioning as a Starting Point for Feminist Economics

The past decade has seen a proliferation of writing by feminist economists. Feminist economists are not identified with one particular economic paradigm, yet some common methodological points seem to be emerging. I propose making these starting points more explicit so that they can be examined, critiqued, and built upon. I use the term “social provisioning” to describe this emerging methodology. Its five main components are: incorporation of caring and unpaid labor as fundamental economic activities; use of well-being as a measure of economic success; analysis of economic, political, and social processes and power relations; inclusion of ethical goals and values as an intrinsic part of the analysis; and interrogation of differences by class, race-ethnicity, and other factors. The paper then provides brief illustrations of the use of this methodology in analyses of US welfare reform, gender and development, and feminist ecological economics.     

Some Teaching Techniques for High School Economics

In this article two high school economics teachers describe several teaching techniques that have proven successful in their school. The use of a team approach is briefly explained, and the importance of student motivation is stressed. Among the methods included are skits, plays, the use of video tapes, simulations and games, and the analysis of important economic problems. The means by which the instructors are evaluating their course are set forth, with evidence that the experience helps to destroy commonly held myths about economics and greatly improves student understanding of basic principles.     

作为研究与创新政策工具的“公私伙伴关系”

创新是生产力持续发展的关键因素,而创新主导的增长越来越多地依赖创新主体之间的合作。创新主体互动程度与效率是国家创新体系面临的挑战,也决定着一个国家的创新绩效。作为政府治理改革的重要内容,“公私伙伴关系”为公共部门和私人部门在具有互补利益而又难以单独有效实施的领域开展合作提供了一种制度框架,为构建和完善国家创新体系提供了一种新的视角。     

Econometrics as a Capstone Course in Economics

The author describes an econometrics capstone course design at a large public university that offers economics degrees in both business (BBA) and liberal arts (BS). The goal of the capstone is to provide a research experience similar to those in the honors college but on the smaller scale of a one-semester course. The revisions for converting an existing course to a capstone, the student activities adopted, and sample outcomes are addressed. The hurdles overcome within the respective colleges in order to create a capstone course are discussed. Summaries of several student projects as well as publication of faculty-mentored student research papers illustrate the viability of econometrics as a capstone course for institutions unable to establish a stand-alone research course for that purpose.     

西方经济学教学基础——经济情景

文章从西方经济学理论特性以及本科教学中存在的问题出发,研究了情景教学在西方经济学教学中的应用条件,提出了如何有效的实现情景与理论的融合,以达到提高教学效果的目的。研究结果表明:西方经济学理论具有理论和实践的不可分性、图形与数学模型的结合、假设条件的苛刻性以及理论的环境选择性等特点;教学中面临着本科生经济敏感性差、本土案例缺乏、理论在应用中的灵活性等问题;情景教学应用的条件是,学生理解理论提出的背景、学生进行情景体会、本土案例的开发。     

Teaching Economics to Trade Unionists

This audience for economic education has special pedagogical and subject matter needs from instructors. The rewards to both, however, outweigh the efforts required.     

The Scholarship of Teaching Economics

The authors report on the results of a telephone survey of 1,001 employees of seven large corporations conducted for the Business Roundtable as part of its public policy program. A set of 20 questions keyed to the Voluntary National Content Standards in Economics was embedded in the survey. A measure of economic literacy was constructed from the survey results. Greater economic literacy was associated with more overall education, more college economics coursework, high incomes, and being male. An examination of individual test questions revealed that previous college economics had substantial effects on employees' current economic literacy.     

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＂。     

Economics as a compartmental system: a simple macroeconomic example

The application in economics of methods and tools originally thought for other disciplines is not new. In this paper, we show how the compartmental approach, typical of Biology, Medicine, Chemistry, etc., can be used as a tool to represent the heterogeneity of the agents and introduce it into the dynamic models. We also show that in some cases, the subdivision of the agents into compartments can be useful for the government in order to obtain some results more efficiently. In this paper, the compartmental approach is applied to a macroeconomic model characterized by firms that may go bankruptcy whenever they are unable to repay their debts. Firms are grouped by size, and the consequences of these assumptions are analyzed, especially those regarding the policy implications.     

Economics as Detective Fiction

Almost all good economic analysis is structured like classical detective fiction. This relationship goes well beyond the obvious fact that both detective fiction and economic analysis involve puzzles. The economist's epistemology, presented in the form of scientific narratives, runs parallel to the puzzle-solving processes of the mastermind sleuth presented in the form of fictional narratives. The family resemblance between economic analysis and the classic whodunit becomes even more transparent by noticing another important characteristic they share: the concept of equilibrium. Examples chosen from recent economic literature bring the argument into sharper focus. In each instance, the solution to the puzzles that lie at the heart of their respective domains must be ingenious and surprising in order to be persuasive.     

西方经济学本科教学改革探讨

西方经济学是经济管理类本科专业的基础性必修课程,其教学效果的好坏直接影响学生对其他相关课程的掌握程度。然而当前一些本科院校西方经济学课程的教学效果并不理想。如何对该课程进行科学革新,更好地发挥其基础性地位,进而帮助学生更好地掌握专业知识,是本课程教学改革的主要目标。     

Teaching Principles Of Economics Without Lectures

Lectures have generally been considered essential to good instruction. Indeed, some colleges have severely penalized truant students who dared absent themselves from the lecture hall. In this article, McConnell and Lamphear present important evidence that “students taking principles of economics with lectures, and those taking the course on a lectureless basis [perform] equally well on an intensive battery of objective examinations.”