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TEACHING TOOLS: SHOULD WE TEACH MICROECONOMIC PRINCIPLES BEFORE MACROECONOMIC PRINCIPLES?
Author(s) -
LOPUS JANE S.,
MAXWELL NAN L.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
economic inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.823
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1465-7295
pISSN - 0095-2583
DOI - 10.1111/j.1465-7295.1995.tb01866.x
Subject(s) - ceteris paribus , economics , economics education , macroeconomics , microeconomics , higher education , economic growth
No consensus exists about the optimal sequencing of economics principles courses. We show that most top‐ranked economics departments either do not specify an ordering or require microeconomics first, while most textbooks present macroeconomics before microeconomics. Using a national economic education database, we find that students learn more in principles of microeconomics after taking a course in macroeconomics. However, students do not learn more in principles of macroeconomics after taking a course in microeconomics. This implies that, ceteris paribus, principles of macroeconomics should be taught before principles of microeconomics for optimal student learning.