Volume 9, No. 4 (Winter 2006)
Joseph T. Salerno (2004) has presented us with the choice of pursuing economics as a vocation or profession. The focus of the vocational economist is the pursuit of truth whereas the professional economist works primarily to earn an income, enhance his reputation, or influence political decisions. This dichotomy also presents itself when economics professors seek to instruct courses for economics majors, but in the case of education, the question is do we want to train our students to be vocational or professional economists. For Misesian professors teaching intermediate macroeconomics, there is a tension between leading students in the development of sound economic theory and providing them with a working knowledge of the multitude of macroeconomic models they will encounter in graduate studies. Should teachers of undergraduate economics focus more on economic truth that helps students understand the way things really are or more on various macroeconomic models and hot research topics and techniques they may see if they choose to go on to graduate study? What follows are suggestions for meeting the challenge of intermediate macroeconomics by providing intermediate undergraduate students with a working knowledge of the disarray we call modern macroeconomics, evaluated with sound economic theory one derives within the Misesian tradition.
