TEACHING TOOLS: SHOULD WE TEACH MICROECONOMIC PRINCIPLES BEFORE MACROECONOMIC PRINCIPLES?

No consensus exists about the optimal sequencing of economics principles courses. We show that most top-ranked economics departments either do not specify an ordering or require microeconomics first, while most textbooks present macroeconomics before microeconomics. Using a national economic education database, we find that students learn more in principles of microeconomics after taking a course in macroeconomics. However, students do not learn more in principles of macroeconomics after taking a course in microeconomics. This implies that, ceteris paribus, principles of macroeconomics should be taught before principles of microeconomics for optimal student learning.     

The Micro-economics of Old People's Homes

Summary Eleven old people's homes in England were studied to investigatehow money was distributed within the home, what it had to coverand how it could be spent. The level of the Personal Allowanceand the problems of providing shopping facilities are discussed.The relationship between questions of money and independence,initiative and responsibility in old peoples' homes are consideredand suggestions are put forward to increase old peoples' choiceand control over their own lives.     

Folk Poetry and Working Class Identity in Ulster: An Analysis of James Orr's 'The Penitent'.

Abstract This paper explores changing patterns of collective identity amongst rural industrial producers in the North of Ireland through an extended analysis of a single poem, The Penitent', written by the weaver poet James Orr in 1800. Working-class identities were founded as much on the experience and creation of difference as on the perception of sameness. Rural industrial producers responded to the social and economic upheavals of the time by emphasizing the cultural values of sobriety, respectability and dignity. In doing so they sought to establish a social space which would differentiate them from those whose independence and well-being was eroding.     

Coping with Chronic Renal Failure

Summary This paper presents the findings of a small-scale study in whichtwenty renal patients on home dialysis were interviewed. Thedata are analysed in relation to coping strategies, coping stylesand illness roles. Some implications for theories of coping,illness roles and social work are examined.