Content analysis of public debt in prescribed undergraduate South African economics textbooks
Abstract
In the last fifteen years, South Africa’ national debt has more than doubled as rising public debt has become one of the most critical economic concerns confronting the world economy. It is vital that university students who are future policymakers and studying introductory economics, understand the severity of the risks that these record debt levels pose. This study analyses how three prescribed South African first-year university economics textbooks treat public debt content. Using textbook content analysis methodology, we compared how the texts present public debt, reflect on economic history, and consider alternative views to dominant perspectives on public debt. We find that the books do not address recent literature on public debt, notably arguments on the link between debt and economic growth or inflation. This study recommends that textbooks include more historical examples, use more graphs to illustrate public debt data, and offer differing views to the mainstream on public debt.
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