What makes economics economics?
(10/25/16 3:39pm)
In Jonathan Stern's guest column, "The failure of the department of Economics, Stern broadly criticizes Duke Economics for failing to introduce to undergraduates “the history and philosophy of economics.” Frankly, I consider this approach—and any mandatory introduction to economic history and philosophy without formal training in theory and empirical techniques—a bad idea. Not only do I think that undergraduate economics education should not begin with so-called “Great Books," I think that they should not be a mandatory component of an undergraduate (or graduate, for that matter) education at all.