In this essay, we analyze the dominant position of economics within the network of the social sciences in the United States. We begin by documenting the relative insularity of economics, using bibliometric data. Next we analyze the tight management of the field from the top down, which gives...

Average grades in colleges and universities have risen markedly since the 1960s. Critics express concern that grade inflation erodes incentives for students to learn; gives students, employers, and graduate schools poor information on absolute and relative abilities; and reflects the quid pro...

This paper uses the technique of experimental economics to set up a classroom situation where students learn to make Bayesian decisions. The exercises allow students to discover for themselves a natural counting heuristic that corresponds to Bayes's rule and is much quicker to use in many...

Traditionally econometrics and economics statistics have been taught in the theory and proof, chalk and talk mode commonly found in the teaching of mathematics. We advance the use of computer technology in the teaching of quantitative methods to get students actively engaged in the learning...

Instructors can begin the process of integrating race and gender issues into introductory economics by reexamining their courses with a new lens of diversity. The content of introductory economics can be expanded by 'adding and stirring' race and gender data from standard statistical sources or...

A reflection of the economics profession through Paul Samuelson's Economics. Samuelson offers an uneasy mix of laissez faire in micro and government interventionism in macro. In earlier editions, Keynesian thinking dominated, with an antisaving, progovernment bias and a need for an activist...

At war's end, introductory economics textbooks were overdue for a revolutionary advance. Change conspired to tempt the author to bring to the beginning course the rudiments of Keynesian macroeconomics. The impact was explosive. In reaction to criticisms of the subsequent evolutionary revisions,...

The incentives that arise in markets with asymmetric information are illustrated in the classroom exercise presented here. Student sellers choose both a quality 'grade' and a price for their products. Initially, both prices and grades for all sellers are posted, and buyers select from these...

This paper describes a classroom exercise in which students trade assets of uncertain value in a sequence of market periods. Assets pay one-dollar dividends at the end of each period, but once the dividend is paid there is fixed probability that the asset will be destroyed. Dividends and...

Economics is often taught at a level of abstraction that can hinder some students from gaining basic intuition. However, lecture and textbook presentations can be complemented with classroom exercises in which students make decisions and interact. The approach can increase interest in, and...