Shorter undergraduate studies, increasing specialization and the priority of applied research in Economics represent threats for the History of Economic Thought (HET) as an integral part of the training of young economists. There are mostly sociological arguments to reduce or eliminate HET...

In recent decades, there have been concerns within the economics profession about the narrowness in both graduate and undergraduate economics programs. These concerns have been based on the view that economic phenomena can be the subject of many modes of explanation, each based on a particular...

There is a great deal of interest in the Talmud today, especially in much of Asia. South Koreans, in particular, have developed a fascination with the Talmud and have made it part of their curriculum. Many Korean homes have a version of the Talmud and call it the “Light of Knowledge.” The...

Adam Ruins Everything is a self-proclaimed “half-hour information comedy show” that appears on truTV. The main goal of the show is to take topics and discuss how they are not as great as one might expect; for example, gift giving. In doing this, Adam Ruins Everything touches on many...

Undergraduate students are often interested in and benefit greatly from applications of economic principles. Although popular historical novels do not provide modern examples or business applications, they do draw from historical situations that can help engage students in economic concepts and...

This draft chapter for the Elgar International Handbook on Teaching and Learning Economics is intended to give advice to instructors who might be teaching a history of economic thought course to undergraduates for the first time or who have perhaps been teaching for a while but would like to...

I describe an assignment for a history of economic thought (HET) course, "The Most Interesting Economist in History," modeled off of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. Students vote in head-to-head matchups between economic writers by era for whom they find to be more "interesting" and...

John Taylor has found that entertaining his students is an effective tool for economic education in his classroom teaching. The success of Freakonomics has demonstrated that how we package the economic toolkit can be not only educational but profitable. In this paper, it is demonstrated how the...

This educational resource utilizes the Essential Scholars series published by the Fraser Institute and combines it with the Kahoot! learning platform to promote deeper learning. The nine Essential Scholars (Adam Smith, David Ricardo, David Hume, John Locke, Joseph Schumpeter, James Buchanan,...

This draft chapter for the Elgar International Handbook on Teaching and Learning Economics is intended to give advice to instructors who might be teaching a history of economic thought course to undergraduates for the first time or who have perhaps been teaching for a while but would like to...