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NEOCLASSICAL THEORY AND THE TEACHING OF UNDERGRADUATE MICROECONOMICS
Author(s) -
Scerri Mario
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
south african journal of economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.502
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1813-6982
pISSN - 0038-2280
DOI - 10.1111/j.1813-6982.2008.00217.x
Subject(s) - dominance (genetics) , economics , hegemony , neoclassical economics , positive economics , law , political science , biochemistry , chemistry , gene , politics
This paper explores possible reasons for the long and enduring dominance of neoclassical theory over the undergraduate microeconomics textbook. It proposes that those very attributes of neoclassical microeconomics that raise serious theoretical misgivings constitute the basis for the current hegemony of the standard undergraduate textbook. It further discusses the effects of the standard text on the education of economists in developing countries and conditions of the entrenchment of this text in undergraduate teaching. Finally, it looks at the possibilities of the emergence of alternative textbooks both in the centre and in the periphery of the global academic map.