The financial crisis and the Great Recession have led to calls for more economic history in economic education. This column argues for a much broader use of history in economics courses, as a device for teaching both the logic and the empirical relevance of economics. A proposed curriculum would include the rise of agriculture, urbanisation, war, the rule of law, and demography.
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How history can contribute to better economic education
Coen Teulings | Professor of Economics, University of Cambridge; and CEPR Research Fellow
He was taken in by Reinhart and Rogoff's This Time Is Different though.
How history can contribute to better economic education
Coen Teulings | Professor of Economics, University of Cambridge; and CEPR Research Fellow
He was taken in by Reinhart and Rogoff's This Time Is Different though.
What a jerk. This guy thinks he already knows the answer to all important economic-historical questions, and wants to use "history" in the economics curriculum, not as an open-ended empirical inquiry, but as whiggish tool of indoctrination to explain to economics students why the models economists use are awesome.
ReplyDeleteRight. Confirmation bias at work.
ReplyDelete" not as an open-ended empirical inquiry..."
ReplyDeleteYou have to wonder how these people's brains work... they are living a life that I am not familiar with...
rsp,
Economic history shows that free markets, the personal and financial safety of citizens, and a minimum of licensing and regulatory hurdles, all make for economic prosperity. The basic economic propositions about supply and demand, marginal propensity to consume, elasticity of demand, the economies from specialization, etc., were all known by early traders since Phoenician times 3,000 years ago. Economists have added little of value in the last 500 years except for those who stress these fundamantal characteristics of successful economies.
ReplyDelete