ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how alternative macroeconomic theories can be taught at the introductory level. The approach is to teach three alternative theories to neoclassical macroeconomic theory, and to do so without comparison with or critique of neoclassical theory. The reason for this approach is to present alternative theories as important in their own right and not merely as critiques of the dominant theory. This chapter consists of excerpts from a pluralist economic textbook, Economics After the Crisis, published by the author in 2015 and now used in various universities and transformed into a popular online course. The chapter presents social economics, institutional economics and Post Keynesian economics for three standard macroeconomic textbook topics. The three topics are (1) the macroeconomic flow, (2) wellbeing and poverty and (3) economic growth. The textbook presents the neoclassical perspective deliberately as the fourth and last theory, which makes it clear that it is suitable only for the special case of ideal markets, absence of uncertainty and fully self-interested agents. However, for this chapter, the neoclassical perspective is left out because the purpose is to show how the alternative theories can be taught at the introductory level.
