Your comment (RE: Marshall) reminds me of his less than favorable review
of a "principles" text in his era. I don't recall title/author but I
do recall that it was an attempt to greatly simplify economics.
Marshall noted that "economics is not simple and cannot be made so."
He was of course correct. IMHO, simplified econ texts seem to be
largely attempts to infuse minds with a "market mentality." BTW,
I've not seen your text and am thus not directing these comments at you
(your book).
Brian Eggleston
Associate Professor & Chair
Department of Economics
Augustana College
Sioux Falls, SD 57197
Mr. e wrote:
> At Syracuse we have moved to the one semester course as the only
> port of entry for our program. We did so, so that we could deploy
> more of our faculty resources in smaller intermediate theory classes
> and more upper level field courses. The trick has been to offer
> students a one semester intro with a technical foundation that
> prepares them for the rigors of intermediate theory. This was a
> challenge that I addressed. Apropos of the tch-econ standard that "It
> is quite appropriate for a book author to point out how they have
> dealt with a particularly difficult point in material presentation",
> let me say that my solution to this challenge is a new version of an
> old book of mine. This new version Economics: The Ideas, the Issues
> (Pearson Custom Publishing) is not econ lite and it's not two
> semesters crammed into one. It's a tightly woven (<300 pages),
> technically rich presentation from the micro foundations to an open
> economy macro analysis.
>
> I believe that the principles of economics (as Marshall referred to
> his work) are really very few - and without the whistles and bells
> that many works add to appeal to this or that potential adopter, a
> book can do the principles in an effective fashion ... efficiently.
> Mine may not be the best at this, but this is what an introduction to
> the principles should do so that our students can get on with their
> progress through intermediate theory and on to the good stuff ...
> field courses.
>
> Jerry Evensky
> Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence
> Department of Economics
> Syracuse University
> Syracuse, New York 13244-1090
>
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