Economics students: Self-selected in preferences and indoctrinated in beliefs
Metadata
Show full item recordEditorial
Elsevier
Materia
Self-selection Indoctrination Self-interest Inequality aversion Beliefs
Date
2021-12-16Referencia bibliográfica
Antonio M. Espín, Manuel Correa, Alberto Ruiz-Villaverde, Economics students: Self-selected in preferences and indoctrinated in beliefs, International Review of Economics Education, Volume 39, 2022, 100231, ISSN 1477-3880, [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iree.2021.100231]
Sponsorship
European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program; Universidad de Granada/CBUA; UGR Research and Knowledge Transfer Fund - Athenea3i [Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant] 754446Abstract
There is much debate as to why economics students display more self-interested behavior than
other students: whether homo economicus self-select into economics or students are instead
“indoctrinated” by economics learning, and whether these effects impact on preferences or beliefs
about others’ behavior. Using a classroom survey (n > 500) with novel behavioral questions we
show that, compared to students in other majors, econ students report being: (i) more selfinterested
(in particular, less compassionate or averse to advantageous inequality) already in
the first year and the difference remains among more senior students; (ii) more likely to think that
people will be unwilling to work if unemployment benefits increase (thus, endorsing the standard
neoclassical view about others and the market), but only among senior students. These results
suggest self-selection in preferences and indoctrination in beliefs.