Examining the Unique Characteristics of Economics: A Description of a Student Assignment

Abstract

This article discusses a classroom activity which introduces students to the knowledge creation process in the field of economics. Although the assignment was used in an upper level history of economic thought class, it could be tailored to fit almost any broadly themed course in the field. Economics is a discipline that faithfully adheres to a particular approach—one based on self-interest and contractual exchange; ideas that deviate from this approach are often overlooked by economists or deemed outside the discipline. Likewise, arguments made without the use of core assumptions or mathematical models are screened out as not truly being economics. Due to this allegiance to a specific form of argument, economics has developed unique characteristics. The class activity asks students to think about the implications of these characteristics and identity economic models and theories that exemplify them.

Keywords:

• history of thought
• social construction of knowledge
• gender

Notes

1 Although with the advancements of behavioral economics this view of the “rational” agent is beginning to change. Economists are beginning to recognize that agents are prone to error when making economic decisions and are often unable to accurately determine what actions will maximize their utility. This view is changing within the mainstream paradigm as well. For example, agent-based macroeconomic models do not impose the same restrictions on agent behavior as general equilibrium models do. Instead of assuming many identical, rational agents, agent-based models assign unique behavioral rules to each agent and allow these behaviors to change when agents interact with each other. These insights, although evident in economic journals, have yet to be incorporated in a meaningful way into undergraduate textbooks.

2 National income accounting practices are meant to measure changes in market activity. Thus, activities that take place outside of the formal marketplace are not counted in these measures. Unpaid household work is one example of an activity that is excluded from these figures—others include transactions in the underground economy, the value of volunteering, and the cost of environmental degradation.

3 There are many wonderful reading options that explore themes similar to Diana Strassmann's (1993b) article. I also like Nancy Folbre and Heidi Hartmann's (1988) article. Nancy Folbre's excellent book, Greed, Lust, and Gender: A History of Economic Ideas (2009), explores the standard economic assumption of self-interested behavior and how it pertains differently to men and women.

4 As a reviewer helpfully pointed out, given the fall of the USSR and the dearth of substantially different economies to study, the student might have had better luck searching for courses that analyze the diversity of capitalist economies under “economic development” instead of “comparative economics.”