Surprisingly, one of the trickiest parts of teaching economics is to get students to understand how a market works and that the price adjusts forces of supply and demand to equilibrium. It seems easy enough, and most students learn how to demonstrate this mathematically and graphically. However, students often fail to grasp the real reason that economists like markets - that the price works as a signal that allows market participants to self organize a solution to unexpected changes in the economy. Somehow, students believe there is some magical third force guides the economy. Maybe this is a result of so many tellings of Adam Smith's "Invisible Hand".
If you feel like you do not do a good job conveying this idea to your students, you are not alone. Brad DeLong blogs that he has the same problem. Read his post and take heart.
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