The author’s central argument in this article is that the current micro principles course is structured around an approach to policy that avoids many of the controversial but central issues of policy. These include (1) the interplay of moral issues and efficiency, (2) questions of...

In a recent article, Smith and Yates (2003) argued that regulators could gain additional information about the optimal number of permits to issue from two-sided markets. The author argues that they are incorrect in their assertion because the market they refer to is an asymmetric two-sided...

Fifty years ago what was taught in the principles of economics course reflected reasonably well what economists did in their research. That, however, is no longer the case; today what economists teach has a more nuanced relation to what they do. The reason is that the economics profession and the...

The author argues that, although the standard principles level treatment of fixed and sunk costs has problems, it is logically consistent as long as all fixed costs are assumed to be sunk costs. As long as the instructor makes that assumption clear to students, the costs of making the changes...