ECC3800 · History of economic thought

Overview

This unit involves the study of a series of thinkers whose ideas helped to develop the approaches and tools that make up modern economics: Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Karl Marx, Alfred Marshall, Irving Fisher, John Maynard Keynes, Joseph Schumpeter, Friedrich Hayek, Joan Robinson, Milton Friedman, Douglass North, and Robert Solow. Reference will also be made to the ideas of influential female economists: Mary Paley, Deidre McCloskey, Jane Jacobs, and Elinor Ostrom. In considering the history of these ideas, you will develop informed views about the relative roles of the state and markets in economic life, with particular reference to ongoing challenges such as sustainability, income inequality, intergenerational disadvantage, globalisation and trade. These ideas provide insight into how society can build economies that are resilient, flexible, and less vulnerable to economic fluctuations.

Offerings

Assessment

The Handbook does not list a final examination among the assessment items. That is not a guarantee there is none.

Assessment details may change. Please refer to the assessment information in Moodle closer to the start of the teaching period.

Requisites

The Handbook lists no prerequisite, corequisite or prohibition for this unit.

Learning outcomes

1. discuss critically how different economists in the past understood and analysed the economic problem
2. compare the work on founders of economics such as Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Thomas Malthus, Stanley Jevons, Karl Marx, Alfred Marshall, and others
3. discuss critically diverse theories of value, growth, rent, and decline of economic society
4. be familiar with primary sources relating to the major writings that shaped the evolution of economic analysis.

Workload

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. Independent study may include associated readings, assessment and preparation for scheduled activities. You are expected to complete all pre-class activities prior to your scheduled class, and post-class activities should be completed after your scheduled class. Learning activities may include a combination of teacher directed, peer directed and online engagement activities.

Student experience, not official rules. Nothing here changes what the Handbook says.