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Using ‘Classic’ Articles in the Teaching of Undergraduate Economics

A standard approach to economics education at the undergraduate level is simplification and summarisation. The idea is that economics is a complicated subject which must be boiled down for university students to allow them a grasp of fundamentals that can then serve as a basis for more advanced study of the field’s various complexities, controversies and nuances. However there is a different pedagogy that emphasizes the use of source materials at an early stage. The argument is that even in technical fields, ‘consensus’ summaries of knowledge give a false appearance of certainty and settled debate while early exposure to original expositions by key thinkers provides students with a greater sense of the fundamental nature of intellectual discourse, develops critical thinking and sharpens communication and analytical skills. In effect it is rather like the benefits of ‘raw’ versus ‘processed’ foods: the latter is harder to digest but more nutritious than the former.This paper describes how classic articles have been used to teach undergraduate economics in a first year introductory Macroeconomics class and a third year topics in Microeconomics class. The paper reviews the ‘standard’ approach to undergraduate economics education focusing on the use (or lack thereof) of ‘primary’ or ‘source’ materials; the philosophy of ‘classics’ based pedagogy (mainly focused on ‘liberal arts’ education) and its applicability to the teaching of economics; describes how source materials have been used by the author in university economics classes; and provides conclusions and recommendations for potentially greater use of assignment of source texts in economics at the baccalaureate level.