Economics for Teachers: Musings about Teaching Economics

Somewhat related to my struggle to trust my students is my interest in intrinsic versus extrinsic incentives. Economistmom wrote a post about handling her daughter's allowance, which led me to comment that when I was growing up, my mom always said that our allowances were not 'payment' for doing household chores, we were supposed to do chores simply because it was our responsibility as members of the family. Tyler Cowen makes a similar point in Discover Your Inner Economist , arguing that if you pay your kids to do stuff that it can actually be a weaker incentive than relying on their sense of familial duty. But on the other hand, the ed policy world was buzzing a few weeks ago when New York City received a prestigious award for its "Million" Campaign, in which students receive cell phones and prizes as rewards for academic achievement. On the face of it, I wasn't thrilled when I first heard about the Million Campaign, precisely because I'm skeptical th...

You don't have to read very many of my posts here to know that I'm a huge fan of Freakonomics . But Dubner's post on "locavores " (i.e., people who try to eat locally-grown food) versus the efficiency of specialization is a rare example of the type of economic thinking that drives me crazy (rare for that blog that is, though unfortunately not rare among economists in general). It's the view that efficiency must, or at least should, be the primary criterion for assessing whether something is 'sensible' or not. Dubner is partly trying to point out that proponents of buying local often try to use efficiency as an argument FOR buying local (e.g., it's cheaper, it's better for you and the environment, etc.) when it's much more likely that the gains from specialization make it less efficient. That's fine - I'm all for pointing out flaws in the positive analysis. And Dubner also points out that one person's labor is often another'...

In addition to preparing the Economics for Teachers course, I’m also re-vamping my Principles of Microeconomics course. Partly because of the work I’m doing on the Teachers course, I’ve decided to spend considerably more time talking about the basic principles of individual behavior that everything else builds on. For those familiar with Mankiw’s textbook , I'm talking about his first four principles, focusing on the No Free Lunch Principle and opportunity costs, rational people decide on the margin, and incentives matter. In the past, I’ve sort of glossed over this first chapter of the text, basically telling students that all that stuff will become clearer as the semester goes on. But doesn’t it make more sense to spend the time upfront to make sure students have a solid grasp on these principles first, before getting into the more sophisticated tools that rely on them? Part of what has convinced me of this is the recent explosion of popular books showing economic thinking in eve...

Sorry to put it so bluntly but there is simply nothing fun about grading, on the side of either student or professor. The only exception I can think of is that I have often been amused when grading student papers, though that’s not usually a good thing for the student. But my lament today is sparked by a recent story about a professor who has been denied tenure because he failed too many of his students (we’re talking 80-90 percent got Ds and Fs). I encourage you to read the article here because the story is not straightforward. The school in question serves a significant population of under-prepared students and one interpretation is that the professor simply refused to lower his standards. Another interpretation is that he did not do enough to help his students learn what they should have learned (though there seems to be evidence that he tried). It also sounds like the administration needs to figure out what it’s really asking of its faculty and I have to wonder how any professor g...

My interest in helping teachers of economics at all levels is partly driven by my research, which focuses on K-12 education policy, primarily school finance and teacher labor markets. That means I study how schools are financed (for example, how much revenue comes from the state and how much from local communities, and how does that vary across schools), and I study why teachers do or don’t choose to teach in particular schools. In a larger sense, I am interested in what policies will lead to better schools, particularly for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. My research has made me acutely aware of the challenges facing public school teachers as well as the high variance in the quality of teacher preparation programs. Thus, creating the Economics for Teachers course and this blog are my small attempts to support, and perhaps contribute to the professional development of, at least one group of teachers. It is important for me to point out that I am first and foremost an economist...