Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/189435 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
1995
Series/Report no.: 
Working Paper No. 95-2
Publisher: 
University of California, Department of Economics, Davis, CA
Abstract: 
There are biases in the teaching of macroeconomics. These biases reflect economic discrimination which varies in kind and impact on policy making and welfare of the people. Traditional economic concepts and tools of analysis are capable of identifying the different kinds of economic discrimination and assessing their impact on the economy. These concepts and tools are also adequate in teaching macroeconomics without bias and without compromising traditional objectives of economic education. The existence of economic discrimination has been widely recognized, but the teaching of macroeconomics has been too slow to reflect that reality.1 There have been a few attempts to identify the bias in economic education and restructure the introductory course to remove the bias. However, economic textbooks continue to focus on the economics of homogeneous labor, economic rationality, and perfect competition which tend to ignore race and gender biases in economic policy and implementation. Models and theories of perfect competition can establish standards for explanation of economic behavior, but they do not explain economic discrimination nor justify the bias in economic education. Similarly, failing to emphasize the distinction between theoretical models and applied behavior can result in distorted perspectives of the economy, misleading economic
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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