Economists Are Evolving, But Old-School Textbooks Aren't

The profession is proving its critics right if academia fails to incorporate the lessons of the past decade.

New economy needs new teachings.

Photographer: Patrick Lux/Getty Images Europe
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Many economists think that much of the criticism the profession has taken in recent years has been unfair. Academic research has moved on from the days before the financial crisis, they protest. Judging from the new material appearing in the profession’s top journals, that looks to be true.

And yet the problems with economics run deeper than the state of peer-reviewed research. More serious are the fundamental ideas economists continue to teach students, who leave university with many questionable convictions in their heads.