Promoting Economic Literacy and Self-Awareness Through An Understanding Of Economic Ideology

Economic ideology is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as "a system of ideas and ideals, especially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy." Because it is the foundation for understanding disagreements about economic theories and policy we argue that students should have a sound understanding of economic ideology. With such an understanding, we hope, students will be more inclined to view disagreements among economic educators and practitioners as representing a variety of fundamental beliefs rather than a failure of the science. To help students better understand their own economic ideology as well as the nature of opposing viewpoints in the profession we develop a survey from which a summary statistic is produced, measuring economic ideology along a continuum from very conservative to very liberal. Analysis of survey responses by students in Principles classes demonstrates the survey's validity and reliability. We provide examples for integrating the survey into the Principles course.