William B. Walstad

Entrepreneurship and female youth: knowledge, attitudes, gender differences, and educational practices

Abstract Rapid expansion of creative opportunity recognition and business venture development suggests that the United States is experiencing a sea change with respect to entrepreneurship. Although trends and projections indicate that women will play an increasingly important role in the entrepreneurial development of the economy, little is known about what female youth either understand or think about entrepreneurship. Prompted by these underlying considerations, this study investigates survey data from a national sample of female and male high school students concerning their entrepreneurship knowledge and attitudes—and whether there are any significant gender differences in these areas. The Gallup Organization collected the study data from a sample that included approximately 1,000 males and females. The results derived from logit analysis of the data suggest that there are many similarities between females and males with respect to their knowledge of and opinions about entrepreneurship; however, they also exhibit significant gender differences in several areas. The studys findings lead to important curricular implications for entrepreneurship education in the nations schools, especially in relation to females. Both males and females exhibit a low level of entrepreneurship knowledge. Females, however, are more aware of their deficiencies in this knowledge area than are their male counterparts. Both sexes believe that further education can correct the knowledge problem. Although very interested in starting a business, females still are significantly less likely than males (62% vs. 72%) to want to start a business of their own. Both females and males overwhelmingly believe in the importance of giving back to the community—which goes beyond providing jobs. The findings of this study also suggest a significant paradox in the “pre-entrepreneurial” characteristics of female and male youth. Whereas the majority of students aspire to start their own businesses, they hold certain views that could be detrimental to entrepreneurial success. For example, more than half of the youth sampled believe that price changes are objectionable business responses to shifts in the cost of production or to changes in market demand. This pattern of response, moreover, is significantly more apparent in females than in males. The results of this study provide compelling evidence in support of the need to initiate or improve the entrepreneurship education of our nations youth. Their contributions may be strongly influenced by the foundation for entrepreneurship that is provided in the formative years of their education. Entrepreneurship education should focus on key entrepreneurship concepts, as well as the fundamental linkages between the dynamics and assumptions of a competitive market system and the concepts and practices of entrepreneurship. Two examples of educational programs that meet the particular needs of female youth with respect to these issues, as well as other key requirements for entrepreneurship education, are described in the final section of the study.

Entrepreneurial Attitudes and Knowledge of Black Youth

This study investigates the attitudes towards, education in, and knowledge of entrepreneurship of black youth using results from a national survey that was administered to a random sample of youth, ages 14 to 19. Survey responses reveal that black youth—more so than white youth—strongly desire to start businesses, want more entrepreneurship taught in their schools, and believe successful entrepreneurs have a responsibility to give back to the community. Limited access to role models, inadequate knowledge, and discomfort with some of the rationing mechanisms of competitive markets may limit the potential for black youth to realize their entrepreneurial aspirations. Implications of the survey results for black entrepreneurship are presented along with an educational initiative that models the potential impact of suitably designed and validated curricula.

Improving Assessment in University Economics

Abstract The author discusses the following seven issues affecting assessment of undergraduates in universities: decisionmaking and the selection of tests, the use of written and oral assignments to measure learning, the characteristics of grades and portfolios for evaluating students, opportunities for self-assessment and feedback to instructors, retention of learning and the testing for higher-ordered thinking, the psychology of students in the economics classroom, and the development of new tests as public goods. The author suggests ways that economics faculty can add new dimensions to their assessment practices, improve their understanding of assessment choices, use assessment to enhance the quality of student thinking, and conduct research studies on assessment questions.

The Effect of Economic Knowledge on Public Opinion of Economic Issues

Economic events and issues were a major concern of the American public in 1991 and 1992. This concern arose because the national economy experienced a recession from mid-1990 through the first quarter of 1991 and a weak recovery thereafter. Joblessness rose as the unemployment rate climbed from 5.5 percent in mid-1990 to 7.6 percent in mid-1992. Frequent news reports about corporate restructuring and layoffs reminded the public of the poor condition of the job market. During this two-year period, the Congress and the president engaged in debates over fiscal policy and whether the economy should be stimulated by capital gains tax cuts or increased government spending, and the weak economy became the central issue of the 1992 presidential election. Fears also grew about the size of the federal budget deficit because it was expected to increase from

Data Loss from Pretest to Posttest as a Sample Selection Problem

270 billion in 1991 to about

Assessing the economic knowledge and economic opinions of adults

400 billion in 1992. Finally, the Federal Reserve made front-page news each time it cut the discount rate (five times in 1991 and once in 1992). Despite the attention given to economics in national discourse, little is known about public understanding and opinions about such national issues as unemployment, economic growth, budget deficits, tax policy, government spending, monetary policy, inflation, corporate profits, trade deficits, or the value of the dollar. The Gallup Organization conducted a national survey on American eco-

What Is High School Economics? Factors Contributing to Student Achievement and Attitudes

When estimating regression models of educational achievement with pre- and posttest data, researchers have overlooked a sample selection bias that may occur even where initial assignment to the control and experimental groups is random. The bias arises because students who take the pretest but do not take the posttest are excluded from the regression analysis. Using data from a nationally normed test of high school student knowledge of economics, adjustment for this bias is shown to influence the estimated effectiveness of programs aimed at increasing student learning of economics. Copyright 1990 by MIT Press.

Teaching undergraduate economics : a handbook for instructors

Abstract This study investigates public knowledge of basic economics and public opinion on economic issues. The primary data sources are five national surveys, administered from 1992 to 1999, which contain a rich set of questions to conduct multiple tests and comparisons of the factors that affect economic knowledge and public opinion. As a whole, the results offer significantly stronger evidence of factors that influence knowledge and opinion than is possible from a study of a particular sample of adults using a single set of survey questions. The analysis proceeds in two ways following methods that were originally used with one of the five data sets, a 1992 survey of adults ( Walstad, 1997 ). First, a regression model is specified and estimated with each data set to identify how personal characteristics, general education, course work in economics, income, and political party affect economic knowledge. Second, probit analysis is used to evaluate the effect of economic knowledge on public opinion on selected economic issues after controlling for the above variables. The results from the 1992 data serve as the baseline for comparing the findings across the other surveys.

Econometric Modeling in Economic Education Research

This third part of a series published in the JEE evaluating high school economic education examines the relationship between learning gains and attitude changes.

The Longitudinal Effects of Economic Education on Teachers and Their Students

INTRODUCTION1. The Teaching of Economics: An Introduction (William B. Walstad and Phillip Saunders)PART I. GOALS AND OBJECTIVES OF ECONOMICS INSTRUCTION2. Some Thoughts on the Micro Principles Course (Robert H. Frank)3. Some Thoughts on Teaching Principles of Macroeconomics (Michael J. Boskin)4. Reflections on the Principles Course (Compbell R. McConnell)5. Teaching Intermediate Economic Thoery (George Davis and O. Homer Erekson)6. The Goals and Objectives of the Economics Major (John J. Siegfried)PART II. FOUNDATIONS FOR TEACHING7. Teaching Economics: Inspiration and Persperation (Kenneth Elzinga)8. Learning Theory and Instructional Objectives (Phillip Saunders)9. Humanizing Content and Pedagogy in Economics Classrooms (Robin Bartlett and Marianne A. Ferber)10. The Use of Mathematics and Statistics in the Teaching and Learning of Economics (William Becker)11. Research on Teaching College Economics (John J. Siegfried and William B. Walstad)PART III. INSTRUCTIONAL METHODS IN ECONOMICS: LECTURES AND TEXTBOOKS12. Lectures as an Instructional Method (Phillip Saunders and Arthur L. Welsh)13. The Principle of Economics Textbook: Historym Content, and Use (William B. Walstad, Michael Watts, and William Bosshardt)DISCUSSION, WRITING, AND ACTIVE LEARNING14. Improving Classroom Discussion in Economics Courses (W. Lee Hansen and Michael K. Salemi)15. Student Writing as a Guide to Student Thinking (Jerry L. Petr)16. Active and Cooperative Learning Strategies for the Economics Classroom (Beverly Cameron)EXPERIMENTS AND TECHNOLOGY17. Experimental Economics in the Classroom18. Using Technology for Teaching Economics (William B. Walstad, Ann Harper Fender, Jean Fletcher, and Wayne Edwards)EVALUATION OF INSTRUCTION19. Multiple Choice Tests for the Economic Course (William B. Walstad)20. Essay Questions and Tests (Arthur L. Welsh and Phillip Saunders)TEACHING21. Using Videotaping for Teacher Development and Self-Evaluation (Michael K. Salemi and Alexander J. Cowell)22. Using Student and Faculty Evaluations of Teaching to Improve Economics Instruction (William B. Walstad and Phillip Saunders)