1. Discussion of Students’ Views of the Market System and the Role of the Federal Government in the Economy by Susan Glanz, Ph.D.
Discussant: Cameron M Weber
St. John’s University
New York
cameroneconomics.com
GBRS, University College Cork,
July 27, 2017

2. Discussion of Students’ Views by Susan Glanz
Summary of goals for paper and results:
Goal of paper is to test St. John’s University College of Professional Studies (CPS) students’ views on the US economic system following Market Attitude Inventory methodology by Lephardt and Breeden Journal of Economics and Economic Education Research and as developed by Marcis etal (same journal).

3. Discussion of “Students’ Views” by Glanz
Summary of goals of paper and results (cont.):
2) Anonymous survey returned by 280 CPS students (of 351 surveys given) in 10 sections of ECO1001 in Fall 2016 (in context of US presidential election).
Survey given 3rd week of class, “to ensure that the survey was completed before the concept of a free market, or even a market, is discussed in class.”
Is this a reasonable assumption (that market not introduced by 3rd week of class?). Is this assumption needed (all surveys are in context of time and place) to justify results? How is timing of survey related to how Journal of Economics and Economic Education Research authors explain survey timing and expectation of knowledge of market concepts?

4. Discussion of “Students’ Views” by Glanz
Summary of goals of paper and results (cont.):
3) Student are asked to self-identify as either Male or Female, then as White, Black/African American, Hispanic, Asian, Two or more, or, Non- Resident or unknown.
Interesting result is that around 62% of respondents are Male. How does this relate to CPS student body? Are there not more female than male students?

5. Discussion of “Students’ Views” by Glanz
Summary of goals of paper and results (cont.):
3) Paper finds “students’ views on the market system as slightly positive”.
3) Author states this result contradicts a 2016 survey result that students’ “opinions of the overall economy and their personal confidence in finding a job that is acceptable to them have fallen modestly since 2015.”
The comparator 2016 survey is funded by Panetta Institute for Public Policy. Leon Panetta was budget director and chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, and Institute’s website highlights their “The Case for National Service” project. Can we not expect comparator survey results to skew towards the need for government job-creation when it is funded by Panetta Institute? Therefore how ‘significant’ is author’s finding that survey results as ‘pro- market’ contradict Panetta finding?

6. Discussion of “Students’ Views of the Market System and the Role of the Federal Government in the Economy”

7. Discussion of “Students’ Views” by Glanz
Summary of goals of paper and results (cont.): 4) Interesting finding is that all ethnic groups except T (“two or more”) are neutral towards statements which are against the market. T group skews toward agreeing with market negative statements.

8. Discussion of “Students’ Views” by Glanz
Critiques and additional questions for author:
The Market Attitude Inventory (MAI) survey asks,
“In my opinion, the economic system in the US…” and,
“In my opinion, the federal government of the US should…”
Note that the survey does not use the term, “the market” or “the market system”. Is the research program really asking about “the market system” (as in the titles of author’s paper and the 2013 Journal of Economics and Economic Education Research paper) or is it asking about the “system” in the United States as is? With the state at around 40% of the US economy, does the US really have a “market system”?

9. Discussion of “Students’ Views” by Glanz
Critiques and additional questions for author (cont.): 2) What is author’s motivation for this research? Is the author interested in changing peoples’ views of the market system (or the political economy itself in the USA) with economic education? Is business education aimed to create pro-market views? 3) It would be interesting to know, and as stated by author but not yet explored by author, if CPS business minors (or students at the Tobin School of Business) skew more towards favoring a “market system” rather than a “Keynesian system” as we have now in the USA. Again, would it be helpful to survey before and after economic education? Is the author interested in using existing methodology or pushing towards fresh insights?

10. Discussion of “Students’ Views” by Glanz
Critiques and additional questions for author (cont.): 4) What is motivation for this research program? Why is it important to know students’ views of the political economy by gender and race? One statistically significant finding in paper is “While 57% of Hispanics agreed/strongly agreed with statement #10, in my opinion, the economic system in the United States raises the living standard for most people, only 33% of students belonging to two or more ethnic groups did”. It might be interesting to know of what generation are Hispanic respondents, is the United States still viewed as the ‘land of opportunity’? How does this response relate to candidate Trump’s anti-Mexican immigrant demagoguery given context of the survey during 2016 election season as highlighted by author?

11. Discussion of Students’ Views of the Market System and the Role of the Federal Government in the Economy by Susan Glanz, Ph.D. GBRS, University College Cork, July 27, Thank you.