The Case for Integrating Accounting, Finance and Economics in Teaching the GFC through a Problem-Based Learning Approach

Abstract

This paper argues that a key lesson of the GFC of 2008-9 is that our "silo" approach to the disciplines of accounting, finance, and economics (AFE) has not equipped students to deal with complex real world problems such as global financial crises. Such real world problems are interdisciplinary in their causes, effects, and solutions. The paper discusses elements of each of the AFE disciplines that are essential for understanding the GFC, and why courses in economics and finance that seek to address the GFC as a topic need to integrate ideas from these three disciplines. A problem-based learning (PBL) approach is offered as a way forward, through at least one capstone course in a business/commerce degree that brings together the strands from a range of commerce/business disciplines in a case study approach. The paper offers an outline of such a PBL approach to the GFC.