Re: economics students' attitudes

[Gina Neff <ginasue@xxxxxxxxx>]

See _The Making of an Economist_ by Arjo Klamer and David Colander,
Westview. Doing a survey of 1rst and 3rd year economics grad students at
MIT, Columbia, Chicago and someplace else (Harvard or Yale maybe) they
evaluate the changes in attitudes that occur over the course of graduate
school indotrination... er, education. I belive this includes the factoid
that _The Economist_ picked up that grad students ranked "knowledge of an
economy" lease important to success in grad school and "skill at
mathematics" most important.

Gina

**********
Gina Neff
ginasue@xxxxxxxxx

On Tue, 7 Oct 1997, Thad Williamson wrote:

> Dear Pen-L'rs,
>
> Does anyone have handy references or the actual data from studies showing
> that students who major in economics or in economics grad programs develop
> personal attitudes that mirror the theory of the rational calculating
> economic actor they are studying?
>
> For an upcoming presentation relevant to pomo stuff, I would like to make
> point that studying postmodernism can lead to self-reinforcing effects on
> outlook to world (despair, depoliticization, etc.) and use the economics
> stuff as parallel.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Thad
> Thad Williamson
> National Center for Economic and Security Alternatives (Washington)/
> Union Theological Seminary (New York)
> 212-531-1935
> http://www.northcarolina.com/thad
>
>