IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ejw/journl/v8y2011i1p57-75.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Advanced Placement Economics: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Author

Listed:
  • Tawni H. Ferrarini
  • James D. Gwartney
  • John S. Morton

Abstract

In 2010 the College Board and Educational Testing Service (ETS®) administered 134,747 Advanced Placement (AP®) microeconomics and macroeconomics exams to high school students. The exams are designed to represent the introductory-level micro and macro courses taught in college, and students can earn college credit if they “pass” the exams. The present article discusses the beneficial effects of AP economics and suggests modifications that would improve the program as a tool of economic education. The modifications include more emphasis on economic reasoning relative to mechanics; the integration of property rights, entrepreneurship, and dynamic competition into the content; and correction of the imbalanced presentation of topics involving markets and government. With regard to the last point, “market failure” is a component of the courses, but there is no parallel treatment of “government failure.” AP economics courses attract many of our brightest high school students, and it is important that they be equipped with the tools of economic reasoning and an accurate view of the current state of scholarship in the field.

Suggested Citation

  • Tawni H. Ferrarini & James D. Gwartney & John S. Morton, 2011. "Advanced Placement Economics: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 8(1), pages 57-75, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:ejw:journl:v:8:y:2011:i:1:p:57-75
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://econjwatch.org/File+download/473/FerrariniJanuary2011.pdf?mimetype=pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://econjwatch.org/694
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dan Johansson, 2004. "Economics Without Entrepreneurship or Institutions: A Vocabulary Analysis of Graduate Textbooks," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 1(3), pages 515-538, December.
    2. Claire Melican & Fekru Debebe & Rick Morgan, 1997. "Comparing AP and College Student Learning of Economics," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(2), pages 135-142, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. William Keech & Michael Munger, 2015. "The anatomy of government failure," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 1-42, July.
    2. Dan Johansson & Arvid Malm, 2017. "Economics Doctoral Programs Still Elide Entrepreneurship," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 14(2), pages 196–217-1, May.
    3. Christopher Clark & Benjamin Scafidi & John R. Swinton, 2012. "Does Ap Economics Improve Student Achievement?," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 57(1), pages 1-20, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Arthur M. Diamond, Jr., 2007. "Thriving at Amazon: How Schumpeter Lives in Books Today," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 4(3), pages 338-344, September.
    2. Milo Bianchi & Magnus Henrekson, 2005. "Is Neoclassical Economics still Entrepreneurless?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(3), pages 353-377, July.
    3. Schneck, Stefan & May-Strobl, Eva, 2014. "The economic contribution of start-up firms in Germany," Working Papers 02/14, Institut für Mittelstandsforschung (IfM) Bonn.
    4. Russell T. Warne, 2017. "Research on the Academic Benefits of the Advanced Placement Program," SAGE Open, , vol. 7(1), pages 21582440166, January.
    5. Antonio Saravia & Clara Mengolini & Robi Ragan, 2021. "Socialist Indoctrination in School Textbooks: The Case of “Colección Bicentenario” in Venezuela," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 36(Spring 20), pages 79-104.
    6. Bergh, Andreas & Wernberg, Joakim, 2024. "Stress-Testing a Quasi-Market: Unintended Consequences of the Swedish School Voucher System," Working Paper Series 1505, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    7. Magnus Henrekson & Mikael Stenkula, 2022. "William J. Baumol: Innovative Contributor to Entrepreneurship Economics," Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology, in: Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology: Including a Symposium on the Work of William J. Baumol: Heterodox Inspirations and Neocla, volume 40, pages 107-131, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    8. Robert Lepenies, 2014. "Economists as political philosophers : a critique of normative trade theory," RSCAS Working Papers 2014/11, European University Institute.
    9. Julita E. Wasilczuk, 2017. "Research on Entrepreneurship – Forms of Entrepreneurship (Badanie przedsiebiorczosci a jej rodzaje)," Research Reports, University of Warsaw, Faculty of Management, vol. 1(23), pages 14-26.
    10. David S. Lucas & Caleb S. Fuller & Ennio E. Piano & Christopher J. Coyne, 2018. "Visions of entrepreneurship policy," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 7(4), pages 336-356, November.
    11. Johansson, Dan & Karlsson, Johan & Malm, Arvid, 2020. "Family business—A missing link in economics?," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 11(1).
    12. Tyler J. Brough & Randy T Simmons, 2023. "Economics as moral exchange: James Buchanan meets Martin Buber," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 194(3), pages 395-420, March.
    13. Kopczewski, Tomasz & Okhrimenko, Iana, 2019. "Can homo economicus be an altruist? A classroom experimental method," International Review of Economics Education, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 1-1.
    14. William Stull, 2014. "Taking the Plunge: Teaching the Microeconomics of Entrepreneurship," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 20(2), pages 139-150, May.
    15. Arild Sæther & Ib E. Eriksen, 2014. "Ragnar Frisch and the Postwar Norwegian Economy," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 11(1), pages 46-80, January.
    16. Daniel B. Klein, 2005. "The Ph.D. Circle in Academic Economics," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 2(1), pages 133-148, April.
    17. Charles B. Blankart & Gerrit B. Koester, 2007. "The Economic Analysis of Constitutions: Fatalism Versus Vitalism," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 4(2), pages 169-183, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Advanced Placement (AP); Advanced Placement Macroeconomics; Advanced Placement Microeconomics; economic reasoning; Keynesian; mechanistic approach;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A20 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics - - - General
    • A21 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics - - - Pre-college

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ejw:journl:v:8:y:2011:i:1:p:57-75. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Jason Briggeman (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/edgmuus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.