A Note on Teaching the Aggregate-Supply/Aggregate-Demand Model

As presented in most undergraduate economics textbooks, the aggregate supply/aggregate demand apparatus (AS-AD) is not only logically flawed, which Robert Barro recently demonstrated in this Journal, but seems ideally designed to prevent student learning by concealing the logic that lies behind the macroeconomic processes. Consequently, the AS-AD framework amounts to a form of intellectual indoctrination that relies on the authority of the textbook and instructor to gain student acceptance rather than on the power of reason. The overall effect of presenting the AS-AD model when students have no capability of understanding its internal logic is to discourage them from developing their own independent reasoning ability.