Does Math Confidence Matter? How Student Perceptions Create Barriers to Success in Economics Classes
Abstract
One of the most common obstacles in the economics classroom is facing students’ disinclination to perform tasks requiring basic quantitative skills. Economics, relative to other disciplines, is particularly bridled by this challenge since mastery of economics requires sufficient mathematical proficiency to elicit anxiety and resistance in many students but is not widely regarded as math intensive enough to generate a selection effect of highly quantitative students. This paper attempts to measure undergraduate economics students’ perceptions of their level of “mathiness” or mathematical abilities and anxieties and then identifies the impact of those perceptions on the students’ performance in economics courses.
Recommended Citation
(2026)
"Does Math Confidence Matter? How Student Perceptions Create Barriers to Success in Economics Classes,"
Journal of Economics and Finance Education: Vol. 17:
Iss.
1, Article 6.
Available at:
https://scholarship.rollins.edu/jefe/vol17/iss1/6
