Conference sessions in Public understanding

On the epistemological break in economics

Economic education has to connect to pre-existing knowledge but there is a widespread belief among economists that the public is ill-informed. This is reflected in a variety of surveys and studies which demonstrate this ignorance. We suggest that while the problem might be in the education, it might also be in "measurement". The measurement might merely reflect what we call an epistemological break. This break is not necessarily reflective of ignorance or false beliefs, but rather of the use of a different language and concepts that economists use for familiar concepts. Our paper conceptualises and illustrates the nature of that break, it helps improve the way we understand economic knowledge held by the public, and most importantly suggests some ways to bridge the epistemological gap through changes in economic education.

• Presentation (Prezi)

Public understanding of economics

This session reports the first analysis of results from the 2019 ING-Economics Network Survey of Public Understanding of Economics and discusses potential implications for economics education and communication. The ING-Economics Network Survey was first run in 2017 and we also provide some comparisons with the earlier survey.

The World if… economics was not so dismal

DEBE 2001 Keynote