Teaching

Teaching, textbooks, and pedagogy

PubPol 310 — Understanding Public Policy Using an Economics Framework

An undergraduate introduction to thinking like an economist, aimed at students who want to understand the economic forces shaping the world around them but who only plan to take one semester of economics. The class develops the "supertools" of economic thinking, applies them to see why policymakers don't always get the outcomes they hoped for, and lets students carry that framework into work, home, and community decisions.
PUBPOL 330 — Microeconomics for Public Policy

A core course for Ford School MPP students that develops the ability to use microeconomic analysis to analyze public policy. Major topics: models of consumer and firm behavior, how market systems operate, public goods and externalities, market failure, benefit-cost analysis, and the impacts of government regulation.
PUBPOL 744 — Economics of the Public Sector

A graduate course in public finance — how governments raise and spend public money, and how people respond to tax and spending policy. Examines the economic case for government intervention and its limits, the design of tax systems, and the successes, failures, and compromises inherent in policies on education, healthcare, Social Security, the environment, and taxation.

The Principles of Economics textbook with Justin Wolfers (and the companion Think Like An Economist podcast) is Stevenson’s primary contribution to teaching introductory economics. It’s available in full-year and split editions, with Australian / New Zealand and Canadian adaptations and translations in Italian and Korean.

See Textbooks → and Podcast →.

Sparking Student Curiosity

Journal of Economic Education · 2022

A reflection on the craft of teaching introductory economics — how to spark curiosity rather than march students through canonical diagrams, and how the discipline can connect to the decisions students are actually making in their lives.

Download PDF → Publisher page →
Representations of Men and Women in Introductory Economics Textbooks

with Hanna Zlotnik · AEA Papers and Proceedings · 2018

We document how men and women are represented in leading introductory economics textbooks. Women are substantially underrepresented as main characters, experts, business leaders, and policy makers, and overrepresented in domestic and food/fashion contexts. These patterns likely shape how students see the discipline and who belongs in it.

Download PDF → Publisher page →

Recent talks on pedagogy

EconEd · September 2024

Both Governments and Markets Fail: Teaching Economics with Real-World Insights
Toronto Teaching Summit · March 2023

New Approaches in Teaching Economics
Michigan State · November 2022

Teaching Economics More Inclusively
EconEd · 2022

How we can teach students about labor market discrimination

Video available on the Textbooks page.
CTREE keynote · 2021

Generational Change in Teaching Introductory Economics
University of Georgia Women in Economics · October 2020

Gender and Racial Diversity Challenges in Undergraduate Economic Education

Honors

University of Michigan · 2023

Presidential Award for Public Engagement
University of Michigan · 2019

Faculty Recognition Award

Teaching, textbooks, and pedagogy

Courses taught

PubPol 310 — Understanding Public Policy Using an Economics Framework

PUBPOL 330 — Microeconomics for Public Policy

PUBPOL 744 — Economics of the Public Sector

Teaching materials

Research on teaching

Sparking Student Curiosity

Representations of Men and Women in Introductory Economics Textbooks

Recent talks on pedagogy

Both Governments and Markets Fail: Teaching Economics with Real-World Insights

New Approaches in Teaching Economics

Teaching Economics More Inclusively

How we can teach students about labor market discrimination

Generational Change in Teaching Introductory Economics

Gender and Racial Diversity Challenges in Undergraduate Economic Education

Honors

Presidential Award for Public Engagement

Faculty Recognition Award