Why Do Colleges Make People Unhappy?
My friend James Creigh recently alerted me to a new study showing that relatively young (18-to-40-year-old) American women who consider themselves “liberal” are more than twice as likely to be…
Posts tagged with
“economics”
Higher-Ed Reform’s Coming of Age
On this we all agree: Higher education is in crisis. Rolling protests, rising tuition, and growing distrust have compelled elected officials to speak seriously about reforming our nation’s postsecondary education…
What Today’s Economics Students Aren’t Learning About Economics
The economics major is in dire straits. Across the nation, econ curricula aren’t instilling an appreciation for, or even a familiarity with, the economic way of thinking. Theory classes limit…
Introduce More Market Incentives into Higher Education
When most decisions regarding the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services are made by private individuals or businesses operating in a market environment, society tends to be prosperous,…
Try Humble, Positive Modeling, Not Neutrality
The kerfuffle over the relative merit of forcing “viewpoint neutrality” in history classrooms puzzles me. No wonder: Although an historian by Ph.D., I have taught mostly economics for almost three…
Duke Doesn’t Need “Economic Diversity”
The New York Times is on a tear about “economic diversity.” It’s got a naughty-and-nice list, defined by the number of students with Pell Grants, and it’s stapled a scarlet…
Higher Education and the Law of Diminishing Returns, Part II
Recently, I argued in a Martin Center article that the fourth year of study for the bachelor’s degree is probably relatively unproductive and that enormous resources could be saved by…
Higher Education and the Law of Diminishing Returns
Early in the introductory college economics course, instructors talk about the Law of Diminishing Returns. An illustration: A farmer has a 100-acre field on which he wants to harvest wheat.…
Re: “Failing Introductory Economics”
To the editor: I admire the fact that Professor Ross is not willing to “dumb down” his class in order to make it more popular. Colin Barnett Albuquerque, NM
Failing Introductory Economics
In June 2014, I wrote a piece entitled “Reform Intro Economics” for Inside Higher Ed. There, I argued that then-current introductory economics courses were little changed from those of decades…