Skip to main content
Fachgebiete
Automobil + Motoren Bauwesen + Immobilien Business IT + Informatik Elektrotechnik + Elektronik Energie + Nachhaltigkeit Finance + Banking Management + Führung Marketing + Vertrieb Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe Versicherung + Risiko
DE
EN
Bücher
Zeitschriften
Themenseiten
Organisationspsychologie Projektmanagement Marketing Smart Manufacturing
Weitere Formate
Podcasts Webinare Technik Webinare Wirtschaft Kongresse Veranstaltungskalender Awards
Jetzt Einzelzugang starten
Zugang für Unternehmen
Referenzkunden
SLX-Digitalkonferenz: Zukunftswerkstatt 2024

Mehr Umsatz mit Top-Kontakten

Am 7. Mai erfahren Sie, wie Vertriebsteams Leadgenerierung, Leadnurturing und Leadstrategien effizient steuern können.
Erweiterte Suche
Anmelden
nach oben
Erschienen in:
Introduction: The Financial Crash and Post-Crash Economics Kapitel lesen Erstes Kapitel lesen

2018 | OriginalPaper | Buchkapitel

6. Conceptual Fossils: Why Do We Keep Teaching Irrelevant Ideas in First Year Economics?

verfasst von : Martin Jones

Erschienen in: Post-Crash Economics

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Einloggen

Aktivieren Sie unsere intelligente Suche, um passende Fachinhalte oder Patente zu finden.

search-config
loading …

Abstract

The teaching of microeconomics in first year has become something of a ritual with similar content being taught in universities across the United Kingdom and around the world. As a result, innovation in both textbooks and courses seems to be confined to teaching methods or presentation. This has resulted in the preservation of what this chapter calls ‘conceptual fossils’. These are economic concepts or methods of teaching a concept that have no relevance to how modern economics is understood. The chapter shows how diminishing marginal utility is unnecessary, misleading, and has no real evidence in its favour, distracting students from more important ideas.

Sie haben noch keine Lizenz? Dann Informieren Sie sich jetzt über unsere Produkte:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 102.000 Bücher
  • über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Automobil + Motoren
  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
  • Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
  • Finance + Banking
  • Management + Führung
  • Marketing + Vertrieb
  • Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
  • Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

Jetzt informieren

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 67.000 Bücher
  • über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Finance + Banking
  • Management + Führung
  • Marketing + Vertrieb
  • Versicherung + Risiko




Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

Jetzt informieren
Vorheriges Kapitel Applying Principles of Action Learning in Undergraduate Economics
Nächstes Kapitel The Present State of Economics: Errors and Omissions Excepted
Fußnoten
1
The CORE project is an interesting attempt to overturn the consensus, and one can name a handful of university economics departments that have tried to deviate from this path.
 
2
In this chapter, we will use Begg et al. (2014, 11th Edition) Economics and Sloman et al. (2015, 9th Edition) Economics as examples. However, this is purely for convenience; the points made in this chapter apply to other textbooks as well. We will also be looking at Marshall’s third edition text of Principles of Economics volume 1 from 1895.
 
3
A more precise algebraic formulation would be that the marginal utility of a good is the first partial differential of the utility function with respect to that good. Sometimes this is defined by using difference notation in the textbooks but it is never introduced using calculus.
 
4
I would argue that indifference curve analysis, whatever its flaws, does make a lot more intuitive sense.
 
5
Begg et al. (2014) state that ‘Modern economists are pretty sniffy about measurable utility’—a rather strange statement in the context of modern economics research.
 
6
It should be noted that the analysis in the previous section could also be applied to marginal products on one side and isoquants and supply curves on the other. However, Marshall and all subsequent economists have made allowance for this by the notions of long and short run. By holding all but one factor constant in the short run, one is essentially saying that labour production is additively separate from capital production. One could reframe the entire discussion in this chapter as looking at the problem of not having a long and short run on the consumption side.
 
7
It has to be said that the CORE textbook being developed by the CORE Project at UCL (CORECON 2016) is an exception to this rule that has been developed in response to criticisms of economics teaching.
 
8
It is interesting that diminishing marginal utility is taught as people behaving ‘rationally’ where the ‘diminishing’ part is actually a supposed psychological tendency and the theory is actually inconsistent (i.e. not rationally connected) with the rest of neoclassical economics.
 
9
A typical example of this at introductory level is the theory of comparative advantage which seems to be taught for ideological purposes rather than as an introduction to International Trade. At a more advanced level, one could also look at some of the more obscure ideas of welfare economics taught in advanced undergraduate microeconomics courses.
 
Literatur
Beattie, B. R., & LaFrance, J. T. (2006). The law of demand versus diminishing marginal utility. Review of Agricultural Economics, 28(2), 263–271.CrossRef
Begg, D., Vernasca, G., Fischer, S. & Dornbusch, R. (2014). Economics (11th ed.). McGraw Hill.
Edgeworth, F. Y. (1881). Mathematical psychics: An essay on the application of mathematics to the moral sciences. London: C. Kegan Paul and Co.
Friedman, M., & Savage, L. T. (1948). The utility analysis of choices involving risk. Journal of Political Economy, 56(4), 279–304.CrossRef
Hicks, J. R., & Allen, R. G. D. (1934). A reconsideration of the theory of value. Economica, 1(1), 52–76.CrossRef
Marshall, A. (1895). Principles of economics (Vol. 1, 3rd ed.). London: Macmillan.
Sloman, J., Wride, A., & Garratt, D. (2015). Economics (9th ed.). Harlow: Pearson.
Stigler, G. J. (1950). The development of utility theory. Journal of Political Economy, 58(4), 307–327.CrossRef
Metadaten
Titel
Conceptual Fossils: Why Do We Keep Teaching Irrelevant Ideas in First Year Economics?
verfasst von
Martin Jones
Copyright-Jahr
2018
Buch
Post-Crash Economics

Print ISBN: 978-3-319-65854-4

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-65855-1

Copyright-Jahr: 2018

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65855-1_6

Premium Partner

    Bildnachweise