New economics instructors face numerous challenges when selecting technology for their courses. Because economists teach at a variety of institutions with diverse student bodies and since technology continues to evolve, this article focuses on general principles that novice instructors should consider when selecting technology for their courses.…

In Rortyan fashion, John and David (Siegfried and Colander 2022, 71-84) declare that the critical thinker will "try to learn from others rather than argue with others in order to dominate them." It amounts to saying that critical thinking is more a matter of character than of method, more a matter of ethics than of technique. John and…

Undergraduate economics degrees awarded by U.S. colleges and universities increased almost 12 percent from 2013 through 2015, then stabilized at a little above the 2015 level until 2018, after which they began an accelerating decline over the past five years to end back at a little below 2015 levels.

This paper extends the theory of powerful knowledge to school economics by articulating the nature of powerful disciplinary knowledge in the subject. In order to develop a framework for conceptualizing powerful knowledge in economics, the literature that identifies powerful knowledge in other school subjects is first explored. Then, follows an…

The COVID-19 pandemic uniquely affected nearly all the subject matter in a typical principles of macroeconomics class. Fluctuations in the basic macroeconomic data in the COVID era were staggering and offer new teaching opportunities. In addition, because the recession was primarily driven by supply side shocks, the entire episode offers a unique…

In this article, the author updates his prior studies of LSAT® scores (Nieswiadomy 1998, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2017) using current data for 2022-23 law school applicants, finding that economics majors remain at or near the top of all applicants. Results of the previous studies showing economics majors scored well on the LSAT® have often been posted on…

There are no perfect solutions to the complex mess the planet is in right now, but there might be some better directions for the contemporary 'university in ruins' (Readings, 1996). In a world of struggling liberal democracies, climate change, biodiversity loss and global pandemics, this paper builds on the philosophical work informing the…

Despite recent clarifications by central banks that it is indeed "commercial banks" that are the main creators of the money supply, money creation processes remain as confusing and opaque as ever to many. This article develops a simplified macro-visual diagram of today's money system based on the increasingly accepted "credit…

The author of this article describes an exercise for introductory economics courses in which students are exposed to the breadth of economic study using JEL codes. JEL codes have historically been used to classify economic subject matter and ultimately document the ever-evolving scope of economics. This discussion assignment provides an…

in this article, author Neil Shanks writes about a "people's economics" approach to teaching K-graduate economics, an approach he argues should replace the more traditional and pervasive neoclassical approach. Similar to the shift from 'great white men and wars' history to social and 'bottom up' history, Shanks believes a people's…

This research provides new empirical evidence of the gender gap in university studies in the economics-business area based on econometric analysis (mean difference, OLS, quantile regression, logit/probit). The sample includes 717 first-year students of the 2016-2020 economics, business administration and management, and marketing degree courses at…

The author of this article demonstrates how the unified approach to answering economic questions employed in modern quantitative macroeconomics research can be taught to undergraduate students using the Solow model. Through an application to post-WWII Japan, students get hands-on experience with (1) documenting empirical facts, (2) developing a…

The positive impact of Math Learning Support Centers (MLSCs) on student performance is well-documented in existing literature. However, we argue in this study that many of these evaluations could be improved methodologically. Using a more rigorous approach, we investigated the effect of an MLSC on students' performance and affective variables in…

Undergraduate economics degrees awarded by U.S. colleges and universities increased almost 12 percent from 2013 to 2015, then stabilized at a little above the 2015 level until 2018, after which they began an accelerating decline over the past 4 years to end back at 2015 levels.

An alternative approach for introducing instrumental variables in econometrics courses is presented in this article. The method is based on the ordinary least squares omitted variable bias formula. The intuition for the approach capitalizes on students' understanding and intuition of omitted variables. Thus, if students understand omitted variable…