Thursday, August 16, 2007

Teaching Econ: abstract professors vs. concrete students

Robert Frank has an article in the NY Times on why econ professors do such a lousy job of teaching. He concludes that we simply don't know the subject ourselves. As evidence he cites research showing that most new econ PhD's flunked a simple quiz, reproduced at the bottom of this post. He recommends giving simple puzzles to students to work out on their own, like "Why do soda vending machines dispense one can at a time, while newspaper vending machines allow you to take as many newspapers as you like?" [ANSWER BELOW].
I have an alternate hypothesis, that the problem is instead caused by the general mismatch between how professors and their students think and learn (article). The solution is to tie the theory much more closely to applications. This conveniently, and shamelessly, brings me to the point of suggesting an alternate solution:
A user's manual for applying economics to the real world!!, July 19, 2007
By TerryJ (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews
When I picked up this book, I thought I was going to read yet another theoretical, ivory tower text on the finer points of micro economics. In stead, I read a relevant, well written, at times amusing text on how to apply economic principles to real business problems.

I particularly found interesting the real-world examples throughout the book. This is a must have for any MBA student, business leader, or someone trying to get ahead in the management world.


----ANSWER TO VENDING MACHINE QUESTION-----
The marginal utility of another newspaper is zero. The marginal utility of another soft drink is positive.


----CAN YOU RECOGNIZE AN OPPORTUNITY COST?--
QUIZ from Ferraro and Taylor:
Select the Best Answer to the Following Question:
You won a free ticket to see an Eric Clapton concert (which has no resale value). Bob Dylan is performing on the same night and is your next-best alternative activity. Tickets to see Dylan cost $40. On any given day, you would be willing to pay up to $50 to see Dylan. Assume there are no other costs of seeing either performer. Based on this information, what is the opportunity cost of seeing Eric Clapton?
A. $0
B. $10
C. $40

D. $50
Have an answer? Now try this one:
Select the Best Answer to the Following Question:You won a free ticket to see an Eric Clapton concert (which has no resale value). Bob Dylan is performing on the same night and is your next-best alternative activity. Tickets to see Dylan cost $40. On any given day, you would be willing to pay up to $50 to see Dylan. Assume there are no other costs of seeing either performer. Based on this information, what is the minimum amount (in dollars) you would have to value seeing Eric Clapton for you to choose his concert?
A. $0
B. $10
C. $40

D. $50
Have an answer? Scroll down.

The answer to both is (of course?) B.
A study polled PhD economists and found that only 22% got the first right, and about 40% got the second right. Year of degree, quality of school, etc., were insignificant in explaining this. Only significant finding was that micro theorists were better than all other groups, and macroeconomists were indistinguishable from undergraduates who NEVER took an econ course!

5 comments:

  1. I believe the linkage of theory to the real world is critical even if this is a shameless plug for your book.

    My question is would I have got the right answer to the Clapton/Dylan question if I had your book. I got stumped by the comment that the Clapton ticket had no resale value. You obviously don't know about StubHub.

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  2. The premise is ridiculous (free Clapton or pay Dylan?!) and this puzzle is one of the few known free lunches known to man. Yet another problem with economists...

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  3. Why is luke up at 4 am posting this article??? Are you in New Harmony and cant sleep?

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  4. Say that there is no Dylan show, but you have the choice of either seeing Clapton free or working security at the George Jones show across town. You can make $50 working security, but you hate country music so much that you would pay pay $40 to avoid having to work security at George Jones. Is the opportunity cost of going to see Clapton still $10?

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  5. Proper teaching can be life changing thing, but if there is no proper guide then it can really kill our career. I am lucky that I was able to learn from really good people, as I do Forex trading and I have been taught by the best, it is OctaFX broker’s guide that I am talking about. This is written by highly qualified team of experts and we get so many useful tips and ideas which mean trading becomes so much easy.

    ReplyDelete