ABSTRACT

In May 2000, we – a few students from Parisian universities and grandes écoles (mainly l’École Normal Supérieure) – wrote an open letter in which we denounced the way economics was taught in France. Our criticism included three basic points:

1 Most courses deal with an “imaginary world,” and have no link whatsoever with concrete problems. Acquiring a sound understanding of economic phenomena is one of the reasons why we have chosen to pursue our studies in this field. Teaching, however, is mainly restricted to presentations of the neoclassical theory (or approaches derived from it). We are rarely confronted either with empirical studies or with historical perspectives and analysis.