Does economic education influence the way people think and affect their political attitudes? The evidence as to whether it impacts on political party affiliations is unclear.[1] However, the overall trend shown up by surveys is that the more economic knowledge people have, the more their views on certain issues match those of university economists.

A priori, this relatively blurry picture is unsurprising since even prominent economists may contradict one another. One example of this is the way in which US professor Brad de Long is capable of disputing something as basic as the effects of government expenditure with his colleague Eugene Fama (here). Yet there are also issues which economists are fairly unanimous about. For instance, the view that, overall, protectionism harms the affected economies more than it benefits them.

On the basis of a number of surveys in the US, authors William Walstad and Ken Rebeck concluded that economic knowledge significantly changed certain assessments.[2] As compared to others, respondents with above-average economic knowledge were:

• More sceptical with regard to trade barriers
• More sceptical with regard to government intervention aimed at preventing price changes prompted by supply and demand
• More optimistic as regards the consequence of globalisation and technological change.

Another study compared opinions of teachers with those of journalists and economists on economic issues. The first result was: teachers answer more like journalists than like economists. This is reassuring – at least for the journalists. (One could, however, interpret this result in varying ways: a) the media influence teachers, b) journalists were influenced in school, or c) hardly anyone thinks like economists.)

Anyone who finds it difficult to come to terms with the first result may find comfort in the second: teachers who teach economics are somewhat closer to the interviewed economists. Another survey established that teachers with a degree in economics respond increasingly as economists do.[1]

A propos degrees – many of the surveys looked into the political views of economics students. More on that in the next blog article.

On behalf of the iconomix team

Michael Manz

[1] Cf. Walstad, W. (2005), What Works: A Review of Research on Outcomes and Effective Program Delivery in Precollege Economic Education, pp. 43–44.

[2] Cf. Walstad W., and K. Rebeck (2002), Assessing the economic knowledge and economic opinions of adults, The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance (42), pp. 921–935.