Course 2013-2014 a.y.

30170 - HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT


CLEAM - CLEF - CLEACC - BESS-CLES - BIEMF

Department of Economics

Course taught in English

Go to class group/s: 31
CLEAM (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/04) - CLEF (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/04) - CLEACC (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/04) - BESS-CLES (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/04) - BIEMF (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/04)
Course Director:
IVAN MOSCATI

Classes: 31 (II sem.)
Instructors:
Class 31: IVAN MOSCATI


Course Objectives

The course offers a panoramic and orienting view of the evolution of economic theory from Adam Smith to the later 20th century. After completing the course, students should be able to:

  • Identify the major ideas associated with each school or author studied, and thereby comprehend the origins of contemporary economic theory.
  • Evaluate similarities and differences across schools, and understand how methodological issues have often shaped the development of economic ideas.
  • Use differences across schools and paradigms to think critically about the underlying assumptions of economic theories learned in other courses.
Course motto (from Keynes): "A study of the history of opinion is a necessary preliminary to the emancipation of the mind. I do not know which makes a man more conservative to know nothing but the present, or nothing but the past".

Course Content Summary

  • The classical theory of value and distribution (1770-1870): Smith, Ricardo, Mill.
  • The marginal revolution (1871-1874): Menger, Jevons, Walras.
  • Consolidation of marginalism (1875-1900): Edgeworth, Wicksteed, Marshall.
  • The ordinal revolution and its discontents (1890-1945): Fisher, Pareto, Hicks & Allen, Samuelson, Friedman.
  • Monetary and business cycle theory (1750-1935): Hume, Fisher, Pigou, Menger, Wicksell, Hayek.
  • Keynes: from the «classical» theory to the General Theory (1920-1936).
  • IS-LM macroeconomics and the neoclassical synthesis (1937-1965): Hicks, Modigliani, Samuelson.
  • The rise of monetarism and new classical macroeconomics (1965-1980): Friedman and Lucas.
  • Birth and early developments of game theory (1920-1970): von Neumann & Morgenstern, Nash.
  • Axiomatization of utility theory and analysis of risky decisions (1940-1980): Debreu, von Neumann, Friedman, Savage, Allais, Ellsberg.
  • The rise of behavioral economics (1980-2000): Kahneman & Tversky.

Detailed Description of Assessment Methods

Students can choose between two different ways of taking the exam:

 

  • Assignments (40%) and written exam (60%).
  • Written exam only (100%).

Textbooks

  • I. Moscati, From Classical Political Economy to Behavioral Economics. Egea, Milano 2012.
  • Original texts available on Learning Space.
Exam textbooks & Online Articles (check availability at the Library)

Prerequisites

Familiarity with basic micro- and macroeconomic theory

Last change 29/03/2013 14:54