In the last decades, the history of economic thought has become more and more a subfield of economic science, although historical actors’ conceptions of economic phenomena are actually a fundamental element of historical research (state intervention vs. laissez-faire, economic planning, monetary unions, etc.). The goal of this course is to familiarise history students with the development of Western economic thought from the rise of political economy in the 18th century to late developments of the economic discipline in the late 20th century. In contrast to many ‘economic’ studies in the history of economic thought, the course aims to place economic ideas within their historical context. Furthermore, the focus will not only be on the main economic thinkers but also on the ideologies and economic cultures that shaped historical actors’ actions.
The course will start with a few introductory classes on the methodology of the history of economic thought and on its role within historical research. After that, the first part of the course will focus on the main thinkers of the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries (Smith, Ricardo, Marx, the marginalist revolution, the Keynesian revolution and its aftermaths). The second part of the course, also relying on students’ presentations, will consider the recent evolution of the economic discipline, in terms of topics and methodologies (international monetary systems, the rise of econometrics, the problem of money, inequality, new economic history, new institutional economics).
- Course owner: Paolo Bozzi
Semester: SuTerm 2023