Recently, the number of undergraduate economics bachelor’s degrees conferred has declined as has the percentage of total degrees conferred to economics majors (IPEDS). Simultaneously, the fraction of economics degrees conferred to econometrics and quantitative economics (STEM-designated) has been rising (IPEDS; Marshall and Underwood 2020). These concurrent trends, alongside a perpetual underrepresentation of females and other minorities in economics, motivate an examination of the core economics curriculum components. This paper discusses aspects of intermediate microeconomics, a foundational and almost universally required course in the economics major and explores how this course may play a role in these trends.
AhlstromL. J.AsartaC. J. (2019). The Gender Gap in Undergraduate Economics Course Persistence and Degree Selection. AEA Papers and Proceedings, 109, 255–260.
2.
AhlstromL. J.SwitzerD. M. (2024). Gender and intermediate microeconomics course performance: Does course type matter?The American Economist, 69(1), 88–107. https://doi.org/10.1177/05694345231214511
3.
Al-BahraniA. (2022). Classroom management and student interaction interventions: Fostering diversity, inclusion, and belonging in the undergraduate economics classroom. The Journal of Economic Education, 53(3), 259–272. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220485.2022.2075507
4.
AllgoodS.McGoldrickK. (2023). Understanding sex differences when majoring in economics: What little we know, reasons for knowledge gaps, and a research agenda of unanswered questions. Advances in Economics Education, 2(1), 4–25. https://doi.org/10.4337/aee.2023.01.02
5.
BayerA. (2021). Diversifying economic quality. American economic association committee on the status of minority groups in the economics profession (CSMGEP). https://www.diversifyingecon.org/
6.
BayerA.BhanotS.BronchettiE.O’ConnellS. (2020). Diagnosing the learning environment for diverse students in introductory economics: An analysis of relevance, belonging, and growth mindsets. AEA Papers and Proceedings, 110, 294–298. https://doi.org/10.1257/pandp.20201051
7.
BayerA.BhanotS. P.LozanoF. (2019). Does simple information provision lead to more diverse classrooms? Evidence from a field experiment on undergraduate economics. AEA Papers and Proceedings, 109, 110–114. https://doi.org/10.1257/pandp.2019109
8.
BayerA.WilcoxD. W. (2019). The unequal distribution of economic education: A report on the race, ethnicity, and gender of economics majors at US colleges and universities. The Journal of Economic Education, 50(3), 299–320. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220485.2019.1618766
9.
BosshardtW.WattsM.BeckerW. E. (2013). Course requirements for bachelor’s degrees in economics. American Economic Review, 103(3), 643–647. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.103.3.643
10.
CharlesworthT. E.BanajiM. R. (2019). Gender in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics: Issues, causes, solutions. The Journal of Neuroscience: The Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 39(37), 7228–7243. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0475-18.2019
11.
EmersonT. L. N.McGoldrickK. (2024). Failure, withdrawals, and retakes in intermediate microeconomics. The Journal of Economic Education, 55(4), 333–349. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220485.2024.2364860
12.
GartnerH. L.SchneebaumA. (2023). An analysis of women’s underrepresentation in undergraduate economics. Review of Political Economy, 35(3), 593–613. https://doi.org/10.1080/09538259.2023.2183672
13.
HallidayS.Madhurika MamunuruS. (2025). Updating our approach to intermediate microeconomics. Same issue of AEX – needs.
14.
HamermeshD. S. (2013). Six decades of top economics publishing: Who and how?Journal of Economic Literature, 51(1), 162–172. https://doi.org/10.1257/jel.51.1.162
15.
HarterC.AsartaC. J. (2022). Teaching methods in undergraduate intermediate theory, Statistics and econometrics, and other upper-division economics courses: Results from a sixth national quinquennial survey. The American Economist, 67(1), 132–146. https://doi.org/10.1177/05694345211037904
16.
HoytG.O'SullivanR.MarshallE.PatelD. (2025, May 16). An examination of the intermediate microeconomic theory course: Current landscape and future directions. SSRN. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5257977
17.
JacobsonS.ViceiszaA. (2025). All flowers, No weeds in intermediate microeconomics: Inclusive teaching in the hardest core class. Same issue of AEX – needs.
18.
LopezM.WandschneiderK. (2023). How to belong: Inclusive pedagogical practices for beginning instructors of economics. The Journal of Economic Education, 55(1), 41–53. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220485.2023.2258876
19.
LundbergS.StearnsJ. (2019). Women in economics: Stalled progress. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 33(1), 3–22. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.33.1.3
MarshallE. C.UnderwoodA. (2020). Is economics STEM? Trends in the discipline from 1997 to 2018. The Journal of Economic Education, 51(2), 167–174. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220485.2020.1731387
22.
MarshallE. C.UnderwoodA. (2022). Is economics STEM? Process of (re) classification, requirements, and quantitative rigor. The Journal of Economic Education, 53(3), 250–258. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220485.2022.2075508
23.
MarshallE. C.UnderwoodA.HydeA. (2024). Requirements of the undergraduate economics major: An update and comparison. The Journal of Economic Education, 55(3), 320–327. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220485.2024.2346662
SiegfriedJ. J.WalstadW. B. (2014). Undergraduate coursework in economics: A survey perspective. The Journal of Economic Education, 45(2), 147–158. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220485.2014.889965
29.
ThalerR. H. (2016). Behavioral economics: Past, present, and future. American Economic Review, 106(7), 1577–1600. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.106.7.1577
Von AllmenP.BrowerG. (1998). Calculus and the teaching of intermediate microeconomics: Results from a survey. The Journal of Economic Education, 29(3), 277–284. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220489809597652
34.
WalshP. (2024). Calculus conundrum quantified: Results from a new survey of intermediate microeconomics, and trends since 1995. Unpublished Manuscript.
