This tutorial uses a topical approach to explore the history of economic thought. Over the eight-week period, we compare several competing analytic systems including the following: scholastic economics, mercantilism, physiocracy, classical economics, Marxism, neoclassical analysis, Keynesianism, monetarism, and the Austrian school. These approaches to economic analysis both reflect and illuminate the economic and social problems that constitute the Western experience of the past three centuries. Major readings draw from Mun, Smith, Hume, Ricardo, Malthus, Bentham, J. S. Mill, Marx, Jevons, Veblen, Keynes, Schumpeter, Hayek, Friedman, Tobin, and Sen. Throughout the course, we use contemporary articles to illustrate modern-day versions of the historical debates. The course material is designed to provide a fuller context for what you learn in politics, history, and social theory while also deepening your intuitive understanding of contemporary economic theory. |