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…
Posts tagged with
“economics”
Did You Know? UNC’s Minor in Social and Economic Justice Doesn’t Require Economics Courses
UNC-Chapel Hill offers a wide variety of major and minor programs to its undergraduates, and each student’s résumé carries the authority of the first public university in the United States.…
Higher Education Is Shutting Student Minds
Colleges and universities used to proclaim that their mission was to give students a broad education that would expand their intellectual vistas—one that would open their minds. Most still say…
The Problem of Higher Ed and Economic Mobility
Virginia’s top public universities are largely stratified by socioeconomic status. Consider the following statistics that appear in the new book by James V. Koch and Richard J. Cebula, Runaway College…
Did You Know? The Disappearance of Civic Education at Elite Colleges
Modern universities are ignoring their civic duty to teach their students how to become engaged citizens. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni released a report in 2018 that showed…
Life Among the Academic Radicals
For almost a quarter century I have been a professor of economics at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. After years of working there, I have learned something about how…
Intellectual Diversity and Academic Professionalism
Editor’s Note: This is a condensed version of a speech Dr. Otteson gave at a January James G. Martin Center luncheon. Our topic today is the importance of intellectual diversity…
UNC-Chapel Hill’s Economics Program Lacks Historical Perspective
A few weeks ago I went camping with some fellow members of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Young Americans for Liberty chapter. Whenever we get together, there…
Leisure studies: an academic field based on a utopian mistake?
With most academic fields, we know what they are about. Political science teaches about political systems and their workings; philosophy about how people have thought on questions such as ethics; literature courses have students read and contemplate worthwhile books.
Where Duke and UNC Happily Collaborate
After ten years, the program in philosophy, politics, and economics is growing well at both universities.