The Economics Major: Can and Should We Do Better Than a B Minus?
基于美国大学协会发起的全国性文理专业评估项目，通过调查127所高校的经济学专业，发现其平均成绩为B减，分析了质量欠佳的原因并提出了改进建议。
Yes, and yes. The two questions asked in the title of this paper were prompted by an invitation to the American Economic Association's Committee on Economic Education to participate with eleven other disciplines in a national review of arts and sciences majors initiated by the Association of American Colleges (AAC). The goal of this Project on Study-in-Depth was to evaluate the major within the liberal arts curriculum, highlighting connections and interactions among disciplines. In the process we examined the major in considerable detail. The result was a lengthy report,1 from which the present paper abstracts key findings, focusing on the purpose of the major, recommendations for improvement, and methods for effecting change. In compiling the AAC we became painfully aware that while our collective experience in the field of economics education provides us with considerable background, the representativeness of our judgments required checking. To this end, seminars were given at several colleges and universities and over 100 copies of the were circulated to other economists, including leading economic educators; feedback was incorporated in subsequent versions. In addition, in May 1990 a survey of faculty at 127 colleges and universities was undertaken with the goal of vetting and evaluating our main conclusions and recommendations. As a part of that survey, respondents were invited to complete a report card (A,...,F) based on twelve criteria evaluating the effectiveness of the major at their institutions.2 Tabulated on a 4.0 grading scale, the major earned an overall grade of B -. An analysis of the detailed statistical tabulations and openended responses to some thirty-seven questions suggested how it might be improved. In this paper we argue that the quality of the major is suboptimal, a situation probably resulting from two decades of expanding enrollments and the relative popularity of the major, which occurred just when demands on faculty for research and other responsibilities greatly increased, and when college administrations tightened contDiscussants: David Colander, Middlebury College; Claudia Goldin, Harvard University; Alan Blinder, Princeton University; Eric Hanushek, University of Rochester.