The Economics LTSN invited me to write a case study discussing the challenges and rewards of teaching economics to MBA (Master of Business Administration) students. Why a case study about MBA teaching? Certainly, it is an important market and has grown rapidly. More to the point, teaching MBA students poses particular challenges, but equally can be exceptionally rewarding.

A natural place to start is with some of the myths about teaching MBA students. It is said that that MBA students do not want to learn about economics, and especially not micro! More generally, it is said that they don't like the tough subjects like economics and statistics, but prefer the more approachable subjects such as marketing and strategy. It is said that they haven't the patience for intellectual rigour, but want everything distilled to a few bullet points. Finally, it is said that they are not much concerned about the research prowess of their teachers, or even their institution. If they have any view about research, it is said that they see research as something that so preoccupies their tutors, that these do not pay enough attention to their teaching.

I believe that all of these are myths. Contrary to the myths, many MBA students can be persuaded of the huge value of studying economics (macro and micro). Some of them prefer economics to the "softer" subjects, in part because economics is rigorous. Many of them consider that the presentation which contains "bullet points", but not much else, is an insult to their intelligence. Many of them care a lot about their institution's reputation, and the research reputation is an important part of that. Moreover, they like it a lot when you can illustrate an MBA lecture by referring to research you have done on the topic - and especially if that research has had an impact on a business or policy audience.

However, the reader should be careful not to conclude from the above that teaching economics to MBA students is really just like teaching economics students. It certainly is not. Teaching MBA students brings many tough challenges, and there is a steep learning curve. A proportion of excellent undergraduate teachers, and perhaps an even higher proportion of excellent MSc and PhD teachers, has not been able to make the transition to teaching MBA students. However, the transition is possible, and I hope this note will help those making the transition to understand some of the real challenges, and not to be deterred by the myths. Experienced MBA teachers, however, will find little here that they do not know already.

In what follows, there is a lot about the difficulties and challenges of MBA teaching. But equally, I want to stress some of the reasons why teaching MBA students can be as enjoyable as any other type of university teaching - and in some ways more so.

The Learning Curve
There is no doubt that the learning curve in teaching economics to MBA students is a steep one. One of the best ways to make progress is to teach in parallel with an excellent teacher. I was very fortunate in that regard. My first experience of teaching MBA students was a decade ago, when I taught one cohort of a core economics course at London Business School, with Paul Geroski teaching another. That was a tough act to follow, because Geroski was (and is) one of the most outstanding MBA teachers anywhere. Even though he shared a lot of teaching materials and advice, I could not begin to live up to his high standards, and those students assigned to my cohort rather than Geroski's felt hard done by. While it may not have been apparent to me at the time, I was learning a lot from the experience.