Students from 19 Nations Call for Overhaul of Economics

Economics:  Two and a half years ago a group of first year economics students at Harvard engaged in a one-day protest of their economics class syllabus as having “limited scope and bias”.  The class was taught by one of the world’s leading economists and the author of a widely used textbook, Greg Mankiw.  In April 2012 GEI News documented student activities following on from that day at Harvard.  Now the fragmented activities from 2011 and 2012 seem to be getting organized.  A collection of 42 student groups from 19 countries has formed the International Student Initiative for Pluralism in Economics (ISIPE).  Read on for their open letter.

Click on image for full cartoon strip about pluralism.

The ISIPE has gained the support of the 12,000 member World Economics Association and four GEI contributors are on the long list of individual supporters: Dirk Ehnts, Mathew Forstater, James Galbraith and Steve Keen.

There is more discussion about the ISIPE and their “manifesto” (open letter) in What We Read Today 05 May 2014 (Premium content ‘behind the wall’).

Click on the image below to read the open letter manifesto from the ISIPE:

John Lounsbury

Sources:

• Harvard Students Join Occupy Wall Street (GEI News, 02 November 2011)

• Student Challenges May Change Economics (GEI News, 18 April 2012)

• An international student call for pluralism in economics (International Student Initiative for Pluralism in Economics)