经济学人:经济学教育 经济学课程不断发展但节奏略慢

 　　Teaching economics

　　经济学教育

　　The demand side

　　需求方

　　The economics curriculum is evolving, but too slowly for some

　　经济学课程正在不断发展，但对于某些人来说节奏略慢

　　“I DON'T care who writes a nation's laws, or crafts its advanced treatises¹, if I can write its economics textbooks.” So said Paul Samuelson, an American economist² who more than achieved his aim by producing a bestseller. But debate swirls³ around the teaching of the dismal⁴ science—nowhere more so than in Britain.

　　“如果我能书写一本关于这个国家的经济学教材，我将不会关心谁来制定国家的法律或者发表先进的论述。”美国经济学家Paul Samuelson如是说，因为其畅销书，他早已达到了他的目标。但是围绕政治经济学教学的争论从未停止——以英国为最甚。

　　经济学教育.jpg

　　When the financial crisis hit in 2007-08, many economics students found themselves ill-equipped to think about what had gone wrong in the economy or how to fix it. Although researchers in top universities had studied financial panics, their work had not filtered down to the lecture theatre. Undergraduate courses focused on drier stuff, imparting a core of basic material that had not changed much for decades.

　　当07年和08年金融危机席卷全球时，许多经济学的学生发现他们苦思冥想也想不出经济出了什么问题、应该怎样修复。尽管顶尖大学的研究人员对金融恐慌进行了研究，但他们的研究并没有走进课堂。大学本科的课程侧重于枯燥的原理，把多年不变的基本理论的核心传授给学生。

　　As a result, aspiring⁵ economists⁶ struggled to analyse burning issues such as credit crunches⁷, bank bail-outs and quantitative⁸ easing. Employers complained that recruits were technically⁹ able but could not relate theory to the real world. Graduates'knowledge of economic history—crucial during the crisis, given its parallels with the Depression of the 1930s—was especially lacking.

　　这种模式导致心怀大志的经济学家致力于分析和解决燃眉之急，比如信贷危机、银行纾困以及量化宽松政策。雇主们抱怨招募进来的雇员拥有理论知识但不能把理论用于现实。大学生掌握的经济学历史的知识——在此次金融危机中十分重要，因为其与20世纪30年代的大萧条极为类似—尤为缺乏。

　　Students became dissatisfied, too. Groups such as Rethinking Economics, a London-based network of student reformers, emerged to challenge the conventional wisdom of the classroom. At Manchester University, a student revolt led to plummeting¹⁰ satisfaction scores, driving the economics course down the league table.

　　经济学学生也对现状十分不满。学生组织纷纷出现，由伦敦学生改革派组成的 “反思经济学” 开始挑战课堂上传统的经济学思维。在曼彻斯特大学，学生反抗活动使得学生对经济学课程满意度下降，迫使该课程未能登上课程排行榜。

　　Teachers have now responded. University College London has introduced a new curriculum, the result of a project led by Professor Wendy Carlin. The old textbooks had things the wrong way round, Ms Carlin says. They taught concepts like supply and demand in an abstract way and then illustrated¹¹ them with simple examples, such as the market for apples and oranges. By contrast, the new material challenges students to consider real-world topics from the outset. The section on labour supply begins with the history of real wage growth. The new course also acknowledges the limitations of basic models: the trade-off between efficiency and fairness is mentioned early, for instance. Students consider only the first in most introductory courses elsewhere.

　　老师们现在终于有所回应。由于Wendy Carlin教授主持的一个项目，英国伦敦大学学院引进了一个新的课程。Carlin女士说，以前的课本完全搞错了方向。它们用一些抽象的方式来教授供给和需求等经济学概念，然后用市场上的苹果和橘子这种简单的例子来告诉学生。而现在，新的教科书鼓励学生从现实生活中找到例子。书中关于劳动力供给的这一部分就是从实际工资增长的历史开始讲起的。这个新课程也认识到基本模型的局限性：比如，效率与公平的权衡在很早就告知了学生。而其他学校的学生在大部分入门课程上只注重前者。

　　Though Ms Carlin and her colleagues are overhauling¹² teaching methods, the content of the course remains¹³ fairly mainstream¹⁴. That irks those who think the financial crisis has posed a more fundamental challenge to the subject. Rethinking Economics wants curricula to cover heterodox schools of thought. For example, mainstream economic models rely heavily on the concept of equilibrium—a state in which nobody has an incentive¹⁵ to change their behaviour. Critics say this is never reached in the real world, so is a flawed starting point. They want more philosophical¹⁶ discussion about how best to approach economics, and point to Leeds, Greenwich and Kingston universities as models of how to do this.

　　尽管Carlin与其同事在改革教学方式，课程内容仍然跟随主流。这让那些认为金融危机给经济学带来了更为根本性挑战的人们十分恼火。“反思经济学”希望经济学课程能够涵盖非正统的思想流派。举个例子，主流经济学模型严重依赖均衡范式—一种人们没有动机去改变行为的状态。批评者说这在现实生活中根本不可能实现，所以经济学家一开始就错了。们想要在如何更好解决经济学问题上展开更多理论性的论述，并且点名利兹、 格林威治和金斯顿大学作为试点。

　　Two rather different questions have been posed. One asks whether courses do a good job of equipping students with the most important insights from mainstream academic research. The other asks whether young economists should learn more than just today's favoured approach. It would be odd if curricula departed radically¹⁷ from the academic consensus¹⁸. But perhaps mainstream theory must catch up with its students.

　　两个迥然不同的问题随之而来。一个是关于课程是否能够为学生从主流学术研究中找到一个最重要的视角。另一个则是年轻的经济学家是否能够不只是学习现今受大众喜欢的方法。如果课程完全背离学术共识，那也会显得很奇怪。但，毋庸置疑，主流的经济学理论必须赶上学生的脚步。译者：胡雅琳 校对：石海霞

　　1.think about 考虑；思考；回想

　　There were always things to think about when she went walking.

　　她去散步的时候总是有一些事情要考虑。

　　She doesn't stop to think about what she's saying.

　　她都没有停下来想一想自己在说些什么。

　　2.focus on 聚焦；集中于

　　Their talks are expected to focus on arms control.

　　他们的会谈预计会集中讨论军备控制问题。

　　They focus on overt¹⁹ discrimination rather than insidious²⁰ aspects of racism²¹.

　　他们关注的是公开的歧视，而不是种族主义的一些潜在问题。

　　3.such as 例如；诸如

　　Issues such as these were not really his concern.

　　他其实并不关心诸如此类的问题。

　　They offer tips on topics such as home safety.

　　他们就家居安全等问题提供建议。

　　4.want to 想去；想要

　　When life gets hard and you want to give up, remember that life is full of ups and downs, and without the downs, the ups would mean nothing.

　　当生活很艰难，你想要放弃的时候，请记住，生活充满了起起落落，如果没有低谷，那站在高处也失去了意义。

　　The difference between who you are and who you want to be is what you do.

　　你是什么样的人和你想成为什么样的之间的差距就是，你做了什么。

1 treatises   

n.专题著作，专题论文，专著( treatise的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Many treatises in different languages have been published on pigeons. 关于鸽类的著作，用各种文字写的很多。 来自辞典例句
• Many other treatises incorporated the new rigor. 许多其它的专题论文体现了新的严密性。 来自辞典例句

2 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

3 swirls   

n.旋转( swirl的名词复数 )；卷状物；漩涡；尘旋v.旋转，打旋( swirl的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Swirls of smoke rose through the trees. 树林中升起盘旋的青烟。 来自辞典例句
• On reaching the southeast corner of Himalaya-Tibet, It'swirls cyclonically across the Yunnan Plateau. 在到达喜马拉雅--西藏高原东南角处，它作气旋性转向越过云南高原。 来自辞典例句

4 dismal   

adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的

参考例句：

• That is a rather dismal melody.那是一支相当忧郁的歌曲。
• My prospects of returning to a suitable job are dismal.我重新找到一个合适的工作岗位的希望很渺茫。

5 aspiring   

adj.有志气的；有抱负的；高耸的v.渴望；追求

参考例句：

• Aspiring musicians need hours of practice every day. 想当音乐家就要每天练许多小时。
• He came from an aspiring working-class background. 他出身于有抱负的工人阶级家庭。 来自辞典例句

6 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 crunches   

n.（突发的）不足( crunch的名词复数 )；需要做出重要决策的困难时刻；紧要关头；嘎吱的响声v.嘎吱嘎吱地咬嚼( crunch的第三人称单数 )；嘎吱作响；（快速大量地）处理信息；数字捣弄

参考例句：

• I can't bear the way she crunches the sugar. 我简直看不惯她嚼糖的那副样子。 来自辞典例句
• Crunches with a twisting motion (to hit obliques) are excellent. 做仰卧起坐时加上转体动作更好。 来自互联网

8 quantitative   

adj.数量的，定量的

参考例句：

• He said it was only a quantitative difference.他说这仅仅是数量上的差别。
• We need to do some quantitative analysis of the drugs.我们对药物要进行定量分析。

9 technically   

adv.专门地，技术上地

参考例句：

• Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说，这是最先进的设备。
• The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说，西红柿是一种水果，尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。

10 plummeting   

v.垂直落下，骤然跌落( plummet的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Prices are rising, falling, going up, going down, shooting up, plummeting, etc. 物价在上涨、下跌、上升、下落、猛然上涨、骤然下跌等。 来自辞典例句
• The enemy plane went plummeting into the sea. 敌机直直掉进海里。 来自辞典例句

11 illustrated   

adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• His lecture was illustrated with slides taken during the expedition. 他在讲演中使用了探险时拍摄到的幻灯片。
• The manufacturing Methods: Will be illustrated in the next chapter. 制作方法将在下一章说明。

12 overhauling   

n.大修；拆修；卸修；翻修v.彻底检查( overhaul的现在分词 )；大修；赶上；超越

参考例句：

• I had no chance of overhauling him. 我没有赶上他的可能。 来自辞典例句
• Some sites need little alterations but some need total overhauling. 有些网站需要做出细微修改，而有些网站就需要整体改版。 来自互联网

13 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

14 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

15 incentive   

n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机

参考例句：

• Money is still a major incentive in most occupations.在许多职业中，钱仍是主要的鼓励因素。
• He hasn't much incentive to work hard.他没有努力工作的动机。

16 philosophical   

adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的

参考例句：

• The teacher couldn't answer the philosophical problem.老师不能解答这个哲学问题。
• She is very philosophical about her bad luck.她对自己的不幸看得很开。

17 radically   

ad.根本地，本质地

参考例句：

• I think we may have to rethink our policies fairly radically. 我认为我们可能要对我们的政策进行根本的反思。
• The health service must be radically reformed. 公共医疗卫生服务必须进行彻底改革。

18 consensus   

n.(意见等的)一致，一致同意，共识

参考例句：

• Can we reach a consensus on this issue?我们能在这个问题上取得一致意见吗？
• What is the consensus of opinion at the afternoon meeting?下午会议上一致的意见是什么？

19 overt   

adj.公开的，明显的，公然的

参考例句：

• His opponent's intention is quite overt.他的对手的意图很明显。
• We should learn to fight with enemy in an overt and covert way.我们应学会同敌人做公开和隐蔽的斗争。

20 insidious   

adj.阴险的，隐匿的，暗中为害的，（疾病）不知不觉之间加剧

参考例句：

• That insidious man bad-mouthed me to almost everyone else.那个阴险的家伙几乎见人便说我的坏话。
• Organized crime has an insidious influence on all who come into contact with it.所有和集团犯罪有关的人都会不知不觉地受坏影响。

21 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。