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Articles 1 - 9 of 9
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Broader Questions And A Bigger Toolbox:A Problem-Centered And Student-Centered Approach To Teaching Pluralist Economics, Julie A. Nelson
Broader Questions And A Bigger Toolbox:A Problem-Centered And Student-Centered Approach To Teaching Pluralist Economics, Julie A. Nelson
Economics Faculty Publication Series
This essay discusses a "broader questions and bigger toolbox" approach to teaching pluralist economics. This approach has three central characteristics. First, economics is defined so as to encompass a broad set of (provisioning) concerns. Second, emphasis is placed on contemporary real-world issues, institutions, and current events, rather than on debates in the history of economic thought. Third, a variety of concepts and theories are introduced, all of which are treated as partial and fallible--useful in some (perhaps very limited) situations while not so useful in others. Possible reasons an instructor might want to adopt this approach, and examples of use …
Sociology, Economics, And Gender: Can Knowledge Of The Past Contribute To A Better Future?, Julie A. Nelson
Sociology, Economics, And Gender: Can Knowledge Of The Past Contribute To A Better Future?, Julie A. Nelson
Economics Faculty Publication Series
This essay explores the profoundly gendered nature of the split between the disciplines of economics and sociology which took place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, emphasizing implications for the relatively new field of economic sociology. Drawing on historical documents and feminist studies of science, it investigates the gendered processes underlying the divergence of the disciplines in definition, method, and degree of engagement with social problems. Economic sociology has the potential to heal this disciplinary split, but only if the field is broadened, deepened, and made wiser and more self-reflective through the use of feminist analysis.
Rationality And Humanity: A View From Feminist Economics, Julie A. Nelson
Rationality And Humanity: A View From Feminist Economics, Julie A. Nelson
Economics Faculty Publication Series
DOES RATIONAL CHOICE THEORY (RCT) HAVE SOMETHING IMPORTANT to contribute to the humanities? Usually the arguments for answering “yes” to this question go something like the following: The application of RCT has proved to be a powerful tool in economics and the social sciences, leading to clear and rigorous insights unattainable from less precise methods. Therefore, by also harnessing this power, the disciplines in the humanities could advance toward becoming more elegant, rational, and forceful in their explorations of human behavior. As an economist, I’d like to address this argument on its home ground. Has the use of RCT advanced …
Teaching Ecological And Feminist Economics In The Principles Course, Julie A. Nelson, Neva Goodwin
Teaching Ecological And Feminist Economics In The Principles Course, Julie A. Nelson, Neva Goodwin
Economics Faculty Publication Series
It can be difficult to incorporate ecological and feminist concerns into introductory courses, when one is also obliged to teach neoclassical analysis. In this essay we briefly describe how one might extend existing “multi-paradigmatic” approaches to feminist and ecological concerns, and then present an new alternative approach that may be more suitable for some students. This “broader questions and bigger toolbox” approach can be applied in both microeconomics and macroeconomics introductory classrooms.
Low-Wage Workers Really Feel The Squeeze, Randy Albelda
Low-Wage Workers Really Feel The Squeeze, Randy Albelda
Economics Faculty Publication Series
In the United States, it has been generally assumed that those who held a steady job could make ends meet but in today’s labor market nothing could be further from the truth. Workers in low-wage jobs can face double jeopardy: insufficient income to cover their basic needs and lack of access to job-related benefits to supplement their earnings. Public work supports — programs to help families fill basic needs such as health care, child care, food, and housing — can fill the gaps, and for many, they do. Still, in Massachusetts close to one out of every four individuals in …
Antidotes To High School Economics (Mis-)Education On World Hunger, Julie A. Nelson
Antidotes To High School Economics (Mis-)Education On World Hunger, Julie A. Nelson
Economics Faculty Publication Series
No abstract provided.
Beyond Gender Differences In U.S. Life Cycle Happiness, Enrico A. Macelli, Richard A. Easterlin
Beyond Gender Differences In U.S. Life Cycle Happiness, Enrico A. Macelli, Richard A. Easterlin
Economics Faculty Publication Series
We employ two decades of General Social Survey data consisting of 83 birth cohorts from 1893 to 1975 to estimate the influence of satisfaction in seven life domains (family, finances, work, health, friends, place of residence, and leisure time activity) on life-cycle happiness among men and women aged 18 to 89 years in the United States. The adult population is estimated to be happiest at age 51, and men are estimate to surpass women in happiness at age 48. Contrary to both genetic or personality (e.g., traditional gender role) and access to resources (“more is always better”) explanations of happiness, …
Growing Disparities Among Greater Boston Communities During The 1990s, David Terkla
Growing Disparities Among Greater Boston Communities During The 1990s, David Terkla
Economics Faculty Publication Series
During the 1990s, rich communities in the Greater Boston area got richer, and the richest made gains that were proportionally greater than the gains made by those communities only slightly less rich. At the same time, the poorest communities stayed poor, and in fact became more poor in comparison with communities slightly less poor. This dynamic is even more striking when the ten poorest communities are compared and contrasted with the ten wealthiest communities. Census figures show a rapidly expanding differential between the communities of the Greater Boston area. As a commonwealth, we should be considering policies designed to ameliorate …
On The Decomposition Of Wage Differentials, Jeremiah Cotton
On The Decomposition Of Wage Differentials, Jeremiah Cotton
Economics Faculty Publication Series
The often used method for decomposing wage differentials into human capital and discrimination components is reformulated so that both the disadvantage, or "cost," discrimination imposes on a black or minority wage earner and the advantage, or "benefit," it bestows on a white or majority wage earner can be estimated.