UCL - History of Economic Theories

[ECGE1217]

[30h] 5 credits

This course is taught in the 2d semester.

Teacher(s):

Language: French

Level: First

Aims
Main themes
Content and teaching methods
Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Aims

This course on the History of Economic Theories has two objectives. On the one hand, it aims to give students a view of how economic theories have developed, from the birth of Political Economics up to modern times. This should enable students to situate what they have learnt in their foundation courses within a broader framework and to relate it to the questions put by economists from previous generations. This historical approach will also provide an occasion for students to reflect critically on Economic Science, its objectives, methods, etc. They will have, for example, to investigate whether criticisms of economic methods, which tend to criticize its high degree of abstraction and mathematisation, are relevant.

Main themes

The course will examine:
- the link between economic theory and liberalism
- Marx's place in the history of economic theories
- the relevance of the concept of scientific revolution
- the mathematisation of the economy

Content and teaching methods

Contents
This course will adopt a historical, rather than thematic approach and will take in the following stages in the development of economic theories.
- traditional political economics, from Adam Smith to John Stuart Mill.
- Marx's contribution to economic theory.
- The marginalist revolution.
- The founding figures of neo-classical theory, Marshall and Walras
- Keynes and de Hayek.
- Challenges to Keynesian theory
Method
The course will combine lectures and discussions of texts read by students prior to the lesson. This part of the course is particularly important insofar as it enables students to gain direct knowledge of texts written by some of the key writers.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Suport :
1) Reference book: R. Heilbroner, Les grands économistes, Seuil-Point
2) a collection of extracts of papers of big economists