The Devil is in the Details

One of the vexing questions that arises in teaching economics is how much detail to include when teaching a particular topic. A common sense guideline is to provide the level of detail that students need to know. A student's need to know depends on the goals the instructor has set for the course. For example, how much national income accounting do Economics 101 students need to know? A course that reflects the goal of fostering economic literacy would provide less detail than a course that reflects the goal of developing students to be practioners of economics.

In practice, a course that develops economic literacy might stop at a thorough investigation of GDP, while a course that aims to turn students into professional economists would likely include detailed accounts of GNP, NDP, NNP, national income, personal income, disposable income, and so forth.