The Micro in Principles of Macro: A Survey and Modest Proposal

Abstract

To better understand the degree to which students enrolled in principles of macroeconomics are exposed to fundamental microeconomic concepts, we survey twenty popular textbooks. Using the TUCE guidelines as a framework, we categorize the microeconomic content of the textbooks by topic and amount of coverage. We find that for the significant percentage of undergraduates who take only a single semester of macroeconomics, these students are left without enough exposure to the core concepts of microeconomics – including ones that underpin macroeconomic models. On its own, we hope our detailed survey will prove useful to instructors who must select between a myriad of seemingly similar textbooks. In addition, we make a modest proposal for how instructors could include some specific microeconomic content at low opportunity cost.