CORE Econ: Rewriting Econ 101 for the Real World (with Suresh Naidu and Wendy Carlin)

Episode Summary

Executive Summary: The episode argues that mainstream Econ 101 misleads students by centering oversimplified supply-and-demand models and ignoring power, inequality, innovation, and real-world evidence. Guests Wendy Carlin and Suresh Naidu explain how CORE offers a free, open-access, problem-first economics curriculum designed to better reflect modern research and give students tools to understand pressing issues like climate change, labor markets, and growth.

Main Topics: Why economics education needs reform (Priority: 5/5): The hosts and guests criticize traditional introductory economics for teaching simplified, often misleading models that poorly explain crises and policy debates. CORE as an alternative curriculum (Priority: 5/5): Wendy Carlin and Suresh Naidu describe CORE as a free, open-access introductory economics curriculum built by economists to replace textbook orthodoxy with more realistic, evidence-based teaching. Teaching from real-world problems (Priority: 5/5): CORE starts with societal challenges students care about—inequality, sustainability, AI, and growth—then uses economic tools to analyze them, rather than beginning with abstract diagrams. Power, labor markets, and minimum wage (Priority: 5/5): The discussion uses labor markets to show how incorporating bargaining power and outside options leads to different conclusions about wages and minimum wage policy than standard supply-demand teaching. Innovation and long-run growth (Priority: 4/5): CORE begins with the 'hockey stick' of living standards and the role of innovation, industrialization, and creative destruction—topics the guests say are underemphasized in conventional textbooks. Academic freedom, publishing, and textbook incentives (Priority: 4/5): The guests argue that free, not-for-profit materials allow more intellectual freedom than publisher-driven textbooks, which are constrained by market incentives and conservative content changes. Scaling adoption and future expansion (Priority: 3/5): The conversation covers CORE’s global adoption, current penetration in universities and community colleges, and new projects including advanced courses and a community-college-focused book.

Key Arguments: Traditional Econ 101 relies too heavily on supply-and-demand diagrams and default assumptions that 'markets usually work,' which can distort how students think about taxes, wages, and policy. Students are more interested in real problems—especially inequality, poverty, climate change, sustainability, and the future of work—than in abstract theory, so economics should begin with those questions. A more realistic labor-market framework that includes employer power and workers’ outside options explains why minimum wages can raise both wages and employment in some cases. Introductory economics has lasting effects: many students never go beyond it, so the initial framework shapes public policy thinking and broader civic understanding. CORE is stronger because it integrates the best ideas from multiple traditions and current research rather than treating one school of thought as authoritative. Open-access, free curricula reduce costs for students and give educators more freedom than commercially published textbooks. Changing economics education can influence not only university classrooms but also how society talks about markets, growth, and inequality more broadly.

Data Points: CORE contributors at the start: about a dozen - Wendy Carlin describes the founding group that built CORE. Serious authors/contributors now: 20 to 30 - Current core author group for the curriculum. Wider contributor penumbra: up to 500 - People contributing data or research results. Classrooms using CORE worldwide: more than 500 - Teachers in classrooms using the curriculum globally. Countries using CORE: 71 countries - Global classroom adoption. Registered instructors: about 17,000 - Instructors registered on the CORE website. US institutions using CORE: about 120 institutions - Estimated US adoption mentioned in the discussion. Penetration in elite research universities: about 30% - Estimate of CORE usage in elite research universities in the US. Community colleges in the US: about 1,000 - Used to illustrate the large remaining opportunity for adoption. CORE presence in community colleges: less than a dozen - Current penetration in US community colleges. Student concern area #1: inequality - Most common issue students name before starting economics courses. Textbook change rule cited: 15% - Referenced as the typical extent publishers allow textbook changes.

Pivotal Quotes: "The last five decades of trickle-down economics haven't worked. But what's the alternative? Middle-out economics is the answer." — Host intro: Opening framing for the podcast and the case for rethinking orthodox economics. "We get the students to look out the window and think about what are the big problems out there that they want to understand." — Wendy Carlin: Explaining CORE’s problem-first approach to teaching economics. "If you write a textbook, then you have to put things in the textbook that you know are wrong." — Paul Krugman (as quoted by Wendy Carlin): Used to illustrate publishing incentives and why CORE avoids commercial textbook constraints.

Implications: The episode suggests economics education is a major lever for reshaping public policy thinking. Free, evidence-based, problem-centered curricula like CORE could improve student learning, broaden access, and reduce the spread of misleading orthodox ideas.