A Note on the Economic Meaning of Correlations between Teaching and Research Outputs

In recent years the use of student evaluations, peer observations, and other means of providing faculties with more information about their teaching has grown considerably. Evaluation of instruction has led, in turn, to considerable experimentation with course content, instructional methods, testing instruments, and other aspects of pedagogy in attempts to increase the quality of teaching at large universities. These activities have been encouraged and supported by increasingly well-financed teaching and learning centers, and in the case of economics, by the American Economics Association in cooperation with the Joint Council on Economic Education.'