Monday, September 11, 2017

John Cassidy — A New Way to Learn Economics

A group of economists from both sides of the Atlantic, part of a project called core Econ, has put together a new introductory economics curriculum, one that is modern, comprehensive, and freely available online.
In this country, many colleges encourage Econ 101 students to buy (or rent) expensive textbooks, which can cost up to three hundred dollars, or even morefor some hardcover editions. The core curriculum includes a lengthy e-book titled “The Economy,” lecture slides, and quizzes to test understanding. Some of the material has already been used successfully at colleges like University College London and Sciences Po, in Paris.…
The core approach isn’t particularly radical. (Students looking for expositions of Marxian economics or Modern Monetary Theory will have to look elsewhere.)...
OK. But thanks for the shout out anyway.

The New Yorker
A New Way to Learn Economics
John Cassidy

4 comments:

NeilW said...

So modern, comprehensive and wrong then.

Was it sponsored by the Scientologists?

Tom Hickey said...

Actually, it's some improvement, so there is incremental change. I'll take Sam Bowles over Greg Mankiw any day, for instance.

Plus it is free, which serves to undercut the obscene academic publishing industry, which is another "capitalist" scam that has the appearance of text book companies competing but NOT.

Matt Franko said...

More monopoly rent Tom....

Tom Hickey said...

More monopoly rent Tom....

Exactly, Matt, and now the trend is toward renting the text books.