The economics of strategy and the strategy of economics

Abstract

In recent years, several papers have examined the state of economics in university teaching in which the reasons for the relative decline of the discipline have been analysed. This process of self-examination has generated a long list of factors as the possible reasons. Two related developments most frequently mentioned are the competition from the other commerce/business disciplines and the changing composition and aspirations of the student population. With the expansion of tertiary education, students are drawn from a wider ability range and many appear to have very specific vocational aims. Business schools, but not economics, have been well placed to meet the expectations of these students and have experienced rapid growth. This has left economics to 'eke out a marginal existence in business schools', as in the title of one recent contribution (Millmow 1997).