Albino Barrera, O.P.
There is both great urgency and opportunity in incorporating Catholic social teachings in an economics curriculum. In familiarizing economics majors with the method, content and spirit of this social tradition, students get to appreciate the limitations of neoclassical models, tools and theory for policy formulation and implementation. At the same time, they also get a better sense of how Catholic social thought can be improved further in its reflections on economic life. Much flexibility is possible in such a curricular initiative because these ecclesiastical social documents have numerous points of intersection with economics as an academic discipline, to wit: macroeconomics, microeconomics, economic development, international economics, welfare economics, economic thought and economic history.
