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Economics education oreconomic education is a field withineconomics that focuses on two main themes:
Economics education is distinct fromeconomics of education, which focuses on the economics of the institution of education.This article discusses the field conceptually, and also provides a general outline of the typical curriculum.
Akarowhe found that Economics Education can be seen as a process, science and product:[2]
Numerous organizations all over the world devote resources toward economics education.[3][4]
In the United States, organizations whose primary purpose is the advancement of economics education include theCouncil for Economic Education (CEE) and its network of councils and centers,Federal Reserve Education (FRE),[5] theFoundation for Teaching Economics andJunior Achievement. The U.S.National Center for Research in Economic Education is a resource for research andeducational assessment in economics. Among broader U.S. organizations that devote significant resources toward economics education is theFederal Reserve System.
In the United Kingdom there isThe Economics Network, a government-funded national project to support economics education inHigher education contexts, and the non-profit Economics & Business Education Association (EBEA) forsecondary education. The non-profit organizationRethinking Economics is an international network of students and teachers promoting a change in the economics education towards more critical engagement, pluralism of theories and real-world applicability of the discipline. The movement has gained widespread support, among others by theBank of England.
On a global scale, especially in Asia and Africa, there is the Global Association of Economics Education (GAEE), a non-profit organization that transformsconventional curricula into free,interactive learning platforms aligning to daily-life and real-world problems.[6][7]
According to the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, 28.4% of all students receive specialties in the field of economics, trade and business.[8] An attempt to create a Western-style Ukrainian journal called theUkrainian Economic Review a few years ago ended in failure. The lack of publication of Ukrainian scientists in Western economic journals indicates the seriousness of the problem.[9]
Journals devoted to the topic of economics education include theJournal of Economic Education,[10]International Review of Economics Education,[11]Australasian Journal of Economics Education.[12]
Many organizations, such asThe Economist,[13]Financial Times,[14]Royal Economic Society,[15] andInstitute of Economic Affairs,[16] offer essay competitions for economics students.
University-level economics curricula, particularly introductory courses, have been criticized for putting undue emphasis onneoclassical economics - with its key assumptions of individual rationality and market equilibrium, described in the next section - and failing to explain real-world economic phenomena such as the2008 financial crisis;[17] seeMainstream economics § Criticisms andFinancial economics § Challenges and criticism.
In response, theCORE Project, for example, has developed course materials, including a textbook calledThe Economy, that emphasize real-world applications in economics.[18]
Literacy-Targeted instruction in economics argues that the principles level course has too many models and content for an introductory course. The LT approach emphasizes a goal of economic literacy by focusing on a limited number of core concepts to foster deep understanding and real-world application.
Economics is widely offered as amajor subject, and often as a specialized degree.[19][20][21] Economics is also studied as a stand-alone course inbusiness- andfinance degrees, with the purpose of informingmanagement- orinvestment decision making.
The typical economicscurriculum, and degree structure, summarizes as follows.[19][20][21]The core theory comprisesmicroeconomics andmacroeconomics, as well aseconometrics andmathematical economics;as the student progresses, so the coverage becomes more abstract and mathematical.The variousbranches of economics andareas of application are built on this base.Some degrees in fact specialize inapplied economics,econometrics,political economy oreconomic history.For further discussion seeBachelor of Economics andMaster of Economics; for a listing of universities specializing in economics, seeCategory:Economics schools.
Micro- and macroeconomics begin with the joint-concepts ofsupply and demand. Microeconomics develops these respectively for firms and individuals, assuming businesses seek tomaximize their profit under the variousregimes of competition,and that consumers, similarly, are attempting to”maximize utility” given their resources;the price will correspond to the point wheresupply and demand are equal, i.e. a "partial equilibrium".Macroeconomics focuses on the sum total of economic activity - similarly analyzingvarious equilibria - covering the performance, structure, behavior, and decision-making of aneconomy as a whole.At the “intermediate” level, microeconomics extends togeneral equilibrium, to an analytic approach to demand-modeling where curves are derived fromutility functions, and togame theory asapplied to competition, and hence supply;intermediate macroeconomics coversvarious advanced models of the economy, differences betweenschools here (particularlyNew-Keynesian,New-classical, andMonetarist), and the relatedpolicy analysis.At the graduate level, the treatment focuses onmicrofoundations - where macroeconomic models aggregate microeconomic results - anddynamic stochastic general equilibrium, allowing forheterogeneity, thereby relaxing the idea of arepresentative agent. In many programs, approaches fromheterodox economics are introduced at more advanced levels, especiallybehavioral economics andexperimental economics; here, the key ideas ofindividual rationality and equilibrium are questioned, and the relevant topics are then revisited.
Econometrics concerns the application ofstatistical methods to economic data so as to give empirical content to economic relationships. The study begins with thesingle-equation methods, i.e.(multiple)linear regression, and progresses to(multivariate)time series,simultaneous equation methods andgeneralized linear models;at the graduate level, the treatment in parallel emphasizes the underlying statistical theory.Students are trained onpackages such asSTATA,EViews andR.Mathematical economics may be studied in its own right, or via incorporating advanced mathematical-techniques into the micro- and macroeconomic courses; commonly applied areoptimization methods anddynamic systems modelling (for cases of"dynamic equilibrium" as above). At advanced levels,real analysis is used to abstract the economic relationships studied. Courses indecision theory,game theory and(agent-based)computational economics may be taught separately.Many universities offer the further specialized Bachelors and Masters "in Econometrics / Mathematical Economics / Quantitative Economics".
Applied economics concerns the application of economic theory and econometrics in specific settings, and to practical issues. As above, the various applied-fields are offered as (optional) courses in the economics degree, following core-work."Applied Economics Degrees" - bachelors and masters - do cover the core theory, but, often, with a reduction in the number of theory courses, allowing more choice and flexibility in the degree composition.At many schools, specifically focused (andnamed) degrees are offered inagricultural economics,development economics, andfinancial economics.Some master's level applied economics programs train students indata-driven analytics andbusiness decision-support, combining microeconomic theory and econometrics with the student's selections fromdata science,operations research andfinance.Applied economics topics are taught in other programs, as relevant - for examplehealth economics andengineering economics are offered in theMPH /MHA andM.Eng. respectively - but with a reduction in the level of theory.
Inbusiness degrees - undergraduate and masters - a course in "economics for managers", or the like, is typically a program requirement.Here the macroeconomic element deals with topics relevant tocommerce, such as inflation, business cycles, exchange rates, the banking system, and the money supply; the microeconomic element mainly focuses on themanagerial economics relating to product pricing, industry structure and competition. The theory is largely at the "supply and demand" level.Elements of econometrics may be incorporated into abusiness statistics orbusiness mathematics course.SeeMaster of Business Administration § Content.The high-school courses largely mirror this content; their theory discussion may overlap the first courses in the major.Many undergraduate business degrees offer economics as a major, with the structure largely as above, although often with fewer theoretical and mathematical courses.
Economics is commonly combinedwith Finance as an undergraduatedouble major; depending on the program, the economics coverage may be theoretical, as for the standard degree, or applied, as for business degrees.Similarly,Professional certification programs, such as theCFA andCIIA, often include topics in economics.At the postgraduate level, the macroeconomic element will, again, be similar to the business masters, but may also emphasize forecasting - which is widely applied inasset allocation and other financial applications such asfinancial analysis - and is then (slightly) more theoretical.Managerial-type microeconomics may be included in programs with a strong business focus, such as theMaster of Science in Finance; otherwise, microeconomics isexplicitly included only in the more theoreticalMaster of Finance programs, here emphasizing concepts fromfinancial economics such asexpected utility (regardless, relevant concepts are covered when required as underpin to a specific module).
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