avicohen


Avi J Cohen

Photo of Avi J Cohen

Department of Economics

University Professor

Email: avicohen@yorku.ca
Primary website: http://economicsforlife.ca
Secondary website: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Avi_Cohen3

Attached CV

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Avi J. Cohen is Adjunct Professor of Economics at University of Toronto and University Professor Emeritus of Economics at York University. He has a PhD in Economics from Stanford University; a BA in Economics from the University of Michigan; is a Life Fellow of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge; is past President of the History of Economics Society; and a former Senior Research Fellow at the Center for the History of Political Economy at Duke University. His research interests are in the history of economics, economic education, and economic history. He has published in the American Economic Review, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Journal of Economic Education, History of Political Economy, Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge Journal of Economics, Journal of Economic History, and Explorations in Economic History, among other journals and books.

He was a pioneer in integration of writing into Economics courses. A 1991 AEA-commissioned report on “The Status and Prospects of the Economics Major” (Siegfried et al. 1991) introduced the importance for Economics of the Writing Across the Curriculum movement. The Journal of Economic Education followed with a 1993 mini-symposium on writing, which included his first collaboration with a writing instructor (Cohen and Spencer 1993). A recent collaboration, integrating abstract and op-ed writing assignments into a face-to-face principles course with 500 students, and an online course with 400 students, also appears in the JEE (Cohen and Williams 2019).

He is a long-time creator of educational materials, starting in 1992 and continuing through eight editions of Study Guides for the Parkin and Bade introductory Economics textbooks. His Micro/Macro Economics for Life textbooks are in their third edition in Canada.

Avi was an early adopter of technologies. After a 2003 visit to the University of Central Florida (award-winning pioneers in online and blended learning) he created a UCF-like 10-week faculty development course called do TEL (Technology Enhanced Learning), training instructors interested in transforming traditional courses into blended and online formats.

Professor Cohen is the winner of numerous teaching awards, including the 3M Teaching Fellowship , Canada’s most prestigious national award for educational leadership. He is also a member of AEACEE - The American Economic Association Committee on Economic Education.

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When people ask me what I do, I say, “I teach Economics.” While I am a full professor at two universities, a productive academic with an active research program (past president of the History of Economics Society) and honourable service commitments to my schools, my professional identity is largely tied to my teaching.

As a young assistant professor, the immortality of publishing articles in journals that would forever be in libraries was an important goal. But over time, I came to realize how few people would read those articles, let alone be affected by them. Most of my, and I suspect most professors', “academic footprint” on this earth will be through our students. Over a career, we teach tens of thousands students.

As economists and teachers, what do we want our lasting “economic footprint” to be? There is a wonderful old Saturday Night Live skit by Father Guido Sarducci called The Five Minute University. Watch it. His premise is to teach in five minutes what an average college or university graduate remembers five years after graduating. For economics, he states it’s the two words “supply and demand.” That’s it.

The serious question behind the skit, the one that motivates my textbooks, is “What do we really want our students to remember of what we teach them in an introductory economics class?”

The vast, vast majority of students in introductory economics never take another economics course. Economics for Life is designed to help those students learn what they need to know to be economically literate citizens. If we can teach students the fundamentals of thinking like an economist, they will be equipped to make smarter choices in their lives as consumers, as businesspeople, and as citizens evaluating policies proposed by politicians.

Degrees

PhD Economics, Stanford University
BA Economics, University of Michigan

Professional Leadership

Series Editor (with G.C. Harcourt, P. Kriesler, J. Toporowski), Palgrave Studies in the History of Economic Thought Series, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015 – 2023

Co-Lead (with Susa Murtha), “The Development of a Sustainable, Quality e-Learning Program for the Faculties of Health and Liberal Arts & Professional Studies,” York University Academic Innovation Fund, 2011-2014, $500,000

Senior Research Fellow, Center for the History of Political Economy, Duke University, 2011

Chair, Department of Economics, York University, 1994-1997

Research Interests

Economics , History of Economics, Economics Education, Economic History, Technological Change