Economics Revamped for Effective Decision-making

Foundation for Economic Education, accessed 12/14/2017

I currently have a Masters in Public Administration from the University of Kentucky, am getting a second Masters in Urban Planning from SUNY Buffalo, and have studied economies and economics both in and outside of the classroom for several years.  I started learning the heterodox stuff, specifically complexity economics before I got into the Neoclassical literature in my MPA program at Kentucky.  The following is how I would propose revamping our understanding of economies and economics to suit the evidence and more accurate logic that we have at our disposal in the early 21st century CE.  This will be broken down by modules, rather than specific courses to compose what I would consider a more comprehensive and effective way of teaching economics and the study of economies with our current knowledge of how they work.  The goal of this outline would be to produce a framework for teaching economics and the study of economies to produce a class of policymakers and economists who are better equipped to diagnose and execute public policy analysis for the real world for more desirable outcomes.  The proposed curricula is as follows:

• History of Economic Thought and Analysis: 
• An exploration of the different eras of the philosophy of understanding economies and human economics and how they were studied in each time period.
• Normative Values and Ethics: 
• An exploration of what is of value and how to define value in the human context with inclusion of environmental and social considerations.
• Human Psychology in Decision-making:
• How the brain/mind makes choices, and how to evaluate and study human behavior in trade-off and decision-making contexts.  Applicable to individuals and then group dynamics.
• Game Theory:
• Can be used to explore different normative (how things could work) and positive (how things are or will likely work in the future) possibilities for human decision-making.
• System Dynamics:
• The basics in stocks, flows, and feedback loops, plus more advanced looks into systems to understand the different relationships and dynamics among actors and resources in the setting of the economy.
• Eco-mimicry:
• The study of ecosystems and how humans can design social and economic systems to mimic and conform to the natural ecosystems in which we work, live, and play.
• Network Theory:
• An overview of what networks are and how you can study and measure various properties of them.
• Nonlinear Dynamics, Stochastic Methods, Econometrics, and Computational Approaches:
• This would basically be the statistical module for Economics, incorporating the various new methods and software that are available.
• Applied Policy-making:
• This is where it all wraps together to answer questions related to public policy and collective decision-making choices we make. 

I believe that, when taken together, these modules will provide a more comprehensive and effective basis on which to place our policies and collective decisions.  Without these modules taken together, the endeavor of human society to fulfill its biological purpose of positive self-replication and flexible adaptation will be put at risk, and with it, the species' existence in the context of the ecosystems in which we live will be put in jeopardy.