This paper outlines a curriculum reform of economics at the undergraduate level in Western universities centred around eight main themes and which follows a pluralistic, interdisciplinary approach. The aim is to liberate teaching from the stultifying grips of neoclassical economics and its...

Economics teaching relies overwhelmingly on faculty lecturing, which is generally seen as a significant pedagogical problem. But this paper argues that didactic instruction is actually well-suited to the neoclassical economics that is usually taught. This approach – especially its textbook...

This paper aims to quantify the effectiveness of teaching economics with video exemplars, mainly the US TV show The Simpsons. We regress students' exam scores on their performance on Simpsons and non-Simpsons pop quizzes. After controlling for students' quality difference and exam content, our...

In 1985 the Department of Economics at Dickinson College USA, a private four year liberal arts college, embarked upon a bold but promising reform of its economics programme placing it on the cutting edge of what is now called 'pluralist economics education'. This new approach to the philosophy...

As with other sciences, the author argues that there are no unquestionable ideas in economics, and attempts to impose "No Child Left Behind" K-12 type "technical standards" in universities will turn higher education in economics into remedial education. Students need to learn that the very...

We developed three hypotheses and a case study involving a sample of 203 students enrolled in four introductory microeconomics classes during the spring semesters of 2007 and 2009 to examine the effects of prior exam performance on increments for current in- and out-of-classroom efforts toward...

"It is a measure of Professor Samuelson’s preeminence that the sheer scale of his work should be so much taken for granted," a reviewer for the Economist once observed, marking both Paul Samuelson’s influence and his astonishing prolificacy. Volumes 6 and 7 gather the Nobel Laureate’s...

This paper highlights a number of flaws within macro and financial economics that originated the 2007-2011 global economic and financial crisis. These flaws are deeply rooted in neoclassical economics, so much so as the lack of pluralism within the economics profession makes it impossible for...

The invisible hand metaphor dates to the 18th century but only gained prominence after neoclassical analysis came to dominate economic thinking late 19th century. Neoclassical economists rigorously established the assumptions necessary for an economy to operate in accordance with the metaphor,...