In "Opportunity Cost: A Reexamination," Professor Parkin contrasts forgone physical quantities with forgone values as measures of the opportunity cost of basic economic decisions. The impetus for his study stems from an experiment conducted by Ferraro and Taylor (2005), in which professional economists could not reach a consensus over…

Rod O'Donnell writes here that there is a wide and deep confusion in contemporary economics about the concept and role of opportunity cost (OC). O'Donnell states that his main grounds for making this claim are the muddled, variable, and sometimes conflicting treatments of OC in modern textbooks; the disturbing empirical results in surveys of both…

The circular flow of income diagram is a simplified representation of the functioning of a free-market economic system. It illustrates how businesses interact with the other economic participants within the key macroeconomic markets that coordinate the flow of income through the national economy. Therefore, it can provide students of business with…

Historians work in a discipline with few inherent concepts and are obliged to draw upon many fields in recreating the past. Yet authors of most school history texts, state and national standards and curriculum materials seldom incorporate economic analysis in their work. Just look at state standards that include Adam Smith and John Locke but draw…

Only governments can ensure, through laws and policies, the provision of universal public goods, such as a safe supply of water, affordable health care and housing. They can regulate commerce and the private sector. However, governments cannot legislate Jean-Paul Sartre's radical freedoms, Amartya Sen's developmental freedoms, or Hannah Arendt's…

Adam Smith used the metaphor of an invisible hand to represent the instincts of human nature that direct behavior. Moderated by self-control and guided by proper institutional incentives, actions grounded in instincts can be shown to generate a beneficial social order even if not intended. Smith's concept, however, has been diluted and distorted…

Few of the popular British economics textbooks make more than passing mention of finance houses. The role of finance houses in the British economy is reviewed. (Author/RM)

The economic system is an important factor affecting consumer decisions. Students need opportunities to study the economic system so that they can understand how their decisions influence the system and are influenced by it. (JOW)

To respond to today's economic situation, old remedies must be discarded. Students must question causes and effects of problems before suggesting appropriate solutions. (JOW)

Reviews nine books, published between 1981 and 1984, which focus on various aspects of the relationship between law and economics. Maintains that taken together, these works provide a higher intellectual plateau from which the field of law and economics can continue to grow. (JDH)

Considers two alternative views of competition found in the economics literature. The author demonstrates that these alternative views of competition underlie alternative views in other areas of economics, including welfare economics and micro-economic policy. Implications for college students and teachers are examined. (Author/AM)

Contends the downward-sloping aggregate demand curve is a simple and effective tool for analyzing factors that influence activity in the economy. Develops arguments against claims that other factors distort the reliability of the downward-sloping aggregate demand curve. States that textbooks should continue using this concept. (RKM)

Responds to claims about the instructional value of the downward-sloping aggregate demand curve in teaching principles of macroeconomics. Examines the effects of interest-rates and the role of money on demand curves. Concludes by arguing against the use of downward-sloping aggregate demand curves in textbooks. (RKM)

Argues the diagrammatic IS-LM Model, despite its limitations, remains an important pedagogical tool for the presentation of intermediate macroeconomic theory. Proposes a modification that focuses more explicitly on stock portfolio equilibrium and will be more revealing to students. (BSR)

Economics does not have sharply delineated boundaries, but the domain has been defined broadly, and differently, from time-to-time. Currently, the contents of economics can be divided into the following broad areas: macroeconomics, microeconomics, and development economics. Most economists specialize in one or more of the more narrowly defined…