Economics Achievement and Mathematics Training

"Mathematics and the Understanding of Economic Concepts" is Professor Frank Gery's comment on "The Relative Effectiveness of Three Methods of Teaching Principles of Economics" by Moyer and Paden, which appeared in the first issue of this Journal. Gery offers an alternative explanation for the negative regression coefficient for the mathematics variable in the Moyer and Paden equations, suggesting that "... given class standing, the more mathematics courses a student has taken, the fewer courses he will have taken in other fields, any set of which may have greater marginal impact on TEU scores than mathematics." In their reply, Moyer and Paden set forth the skills and abilities which their research reveals as being of greatest importance in explaining achievement in the principles course.