In this brief essay, I describe my approach to the principles course. I emphasize three themes. First, in teaching microeconomics, the tools of welfare economics should play a larger role than they have in the past. Second, in teaching macroeconomics, classical ideas should play a larger role...

This paper examines whether the use of computer technology as a supplemental study aid actually enhances student achievement in introductory economics. Data were collected for multiple sections over a four-semester period to test that hypothesis. The use of course web pages and online, multiple...

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...

If you reduce a multi-dimensional relationship to a two dimensional graph, you are going to cause some confusion. If you do so without being explicitly clear about the definitions and assumptions you are making in the reduction, you will likely cause significant confusion. The AS/AD labeling...

Probit analysis is used to investigate factors that affect instructors' choices of teaching methodologies in introductory economics. The results show that instructor gender, percent of work time devoted to teaching, and the school's Carnegie classification are important determinants. Also,...

This paper examines how computer-assisted instruction affects students. The use of computer-generated slide presentations in an introductory economics course is examined for potential effects on student performance, student attitudes, and the evaluations of the instructor. Multiple sections of...

This essay shows that the stable Phillips curve cannot be mapped off an aggregate supply curve that is linear or exponential. Yet many principles of economics books claim that the stable Phillips curve is a mapping of a stable aggregate supply curve. Treating the stable Phillips curve...

This paper uses two large databases in introductory microeconomics and introductory macroeconomics classes, to seek the answers to two key questions. First, is student learning significantly different in introductory economics classes taught by instructors whose native language is English than...

This paper examines the effect of instructor and student gender on students' ratings of teaching. We analyze data on ratings of instructors of introductory economics classes from a sample of students at 53 different colleges and universities in the United States. We find, controlling for other...