Principal Investigator: Sato Tetsuaki (Associate Professor Faculty of Policy Planning and Management)
Co-researcher: Yasuyuki Ishii (Professor, Faculty of Service Innovation)
Yukihisa Utsumi (Professor, Faculty of Policy Planning and Management)
Kei Goto (Associate Professor Faculty of Policy Planning and Management)
Shinji Tahara (Associate Professor, Faculty of Policy Planning and Management)
Masato Nakao (Associate Professor Faculty of Policy Planning and Management)
Akiyoshi Matsuzaki (Associate Professor Faculty of Policy Planning and Management)

1. Overview of research results
In 2024, we deepened our understanding of the future potential of university economics education by examining specific university trends. Traditionally, economics has been called the "Queen of Social Sciences," occupying a central position in modern social sciences, and its methods are applied to many other academic fields. However, in recent years, considering the aspirations of students, the deviation scores for business and management programs at many major universities tend to exceed those for economics. One possible reason for this is that while fields such as business and management emphasize real-world learning through case studies, economics presupposes mathematical knowledge such as differential calculus, yet it is extremely difficult to recognize its implications in the real world. While applied economics fields such as environmental economics and development economics, which focus on statistical and quantitative methods, are easy to connect with the real world, modern economics, regardless of field, has an underlying unrealistic view of humanity as a rational economic man, making it difficult to stimulate students' interest in economics. In fact, the rational economic man hypothesis makes it difficult to apply social phenomena related to real business.
Indeed, business administration, the academic field that studies business, encompasses a wide range of fields, including business management, organizational strategies, marketing, accounting, human resource management, and innovation. Much of this work relies on criticism of the rational economic man hypothesis. For example, in organizational theory, C.I. Barnard's holistic hypothesis and H.A. Simon's bounded rationality assumption were established to explain organizational conditions that could not be derived from the rational economic man hypothesis. Furthermore, in marketing theory, mainstream neoclassical economics, based on the rational economic man hypothesis, can only explain corporate advertising as inefficient economic behavior that impedes healthy competition. This is because neoclassical economics assumes that all products in the market are homogeneous and that the only factor determining the behavior of rational economic men is price. However, in real markets, consumer preferences are not given, and products would not be recognized without corporate marketing activities. Consumers learn of new products and discover their own preferences only through corporate marketing activities.
However, if we trace the history of economics, we can easily see that it is an extremely rich field of study that takes these points into consideration. For example, Adam Smith, the founder of economics, was originally a moral philosopher and founded economics as part of the construction of a science on human nature. Therefore, humans in Smith's Wealth of Nations (1776) are by no means rational beings as assumed by neoclassical economics, but rather have multiple aspects, including both selfish and altruistic tendencies. In fact, F. A. Hayek, while evaluating The Wealth of Nations as not only a book on economics but also on social psychology, argued that Smith never based his theory on the rational economic man hypothesis.
The modern form of economics is largely due to the institutionalization of economics, which began with P. Samuelson's Neoclassical Synthesis. Specifically, while the Great Depression of 1929 called into question the validity of neoclassical economics, J.M. Keynes's theory of effective demand demonstrated that economic recessions could be resolved economically through government intervention. After the war, Samuelson unified neoclassical and Keynesian economics in the United States (the Neoclassical Synthesis) and wrote the standard economics textbook, "Economics" (1948). While various approaches to economics had been taught around the world up until that point, neoclassical economics became the standard for economics education after Samuelson's time. This institutionalization of economics education has the benefit of clarifying the definition and content of economics that should be taught in economics education and clarifying the level of knowledge students should possess. However, this would lead to a rigidification of the equation of economics = neoclassical economics, and to the dismissal of the existence of other forms of economics.
Neoclassical economics, by assuming the existence of rational economic actors who act to maximize their own profits and utility, has made it possible to mathematically describe economic phenomena and has enhanced the scientific nature of economics. However, as a result, its unreality has become apparent in modern times, and its popularity among students is declining. However, as mentioned above, economics developed until the first half of the 20th century as a philosophy for humans living in society, and we believe that restoring this perspective is particularly essential in economics education at our university, which has embarked on a new journey as Department of Economics Faculty of Policy Planning and Management following a reorganization of its faculties.
In 2024, the above points were presented at the Research Forum CUC Research Institute and published in CUC View & Vision No. 58, demonstrating some success. This theme will be continued as a theme for the entire Department of Economics Faculty of Policy Planning and Management, and a research meeting will be held in 2025, sponsored by the Department, that transcends faculties and departments.

2. Books, papers, academic presentations, etc.
[Books and papers (not peer reviewed)]
"Economics in Higher Education," Yasuyuki Ishii (sole author), CUC View & Vision, No. 58, pp. 21-24, 2024