History of Economic Thought

Fall 2001

This course is a study of development of economic thought from the Middle Ages to the "Keynesian Revolution." It is an attempt to understand economic theorizing in response to the existing social conditions, and to become familiar with the foundations of the main strands of contemporary economic thought.

Office Hours

MTWF: 1:30-2:20

And by appointment. (You are always welcome to drop in.)

Required Texts

The following two books are available in our bookstore:

Landreth and Colander (L&C), History of Economic Thought, Boston: Houghton Miflin, 1994.
Huberman, Man's Worldly Goods, The Story of the Wealth of Nations, NY: Monthly Review Press, 1936.

Selections from the following books are on reserve:

Hunt, History of Economic Thought: A Critical Perspective, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 1979.
Gide and Rist (G&R), A History of Economic Doctrines, Boston: D.C. Heath and Company, 1948.
Roll, A History of Economic Thought, London: Faber and Faber, 1987.

You may borrow hard copies of the reserve material from the Circulation Desk of the library.

You may also access the reserve material via Electronic Reserves (ERes). This is an experiment and there may be occasional problems. You should rely on the hard copies held at the library and use ERes just as an added convenience. Another words, you are responsible for the readings whether the ERes has been running well or not

To get to Electronic Reserves go to Denison Home Page and follow the path below:

Library/Consort/Course Reserves/ Link to ERes

Or go directly to http://eres.library.denison.edu/

Click on Electronic Reserves and Course Materials

Select my name (Behdad) under "select an instructor"

or type in my name or the course number (econ301)

(make sure that the search is by instructor if you put in my name or by course if you put in the course number). Click on any of the identifiers of the course. After accepting the copyrights agreement you are asked to type in the password. It is EconomicS. (Note: The program is case sensitive.)

Your computer must have an Acrobat Reader to open the pages (they are pdf files). You may print the pages and read them at your convenience.

Course Requirements

Attendance: Regular attendance is required.
Exams: There will be 2 hourly exams and a final. All exams are comprehensive (i.e., they are on all the material covered in the course up to the date of the exam.)
Short papers. Every Friday (except those listed below) you will receive a question. You must write a one-page (type-written, in 400-450 words) answer to that question to "hand in" on the following Monday.

Everyone gets two weeks off from writing the weekly papers. It is up to you when you want to use your "weeks off." If you do not find any need for the "weeks off", you would be excused from writing the last two weekly papers.

No short paper assignment will be given on the following Fridays: August 31 (1^st week of classes), October 5 (exam I), November 9 (exam II), and December 7 (last Friday of classes).

Papers should be handed in at the beginning of our Monday class. If for any reason you cannot hand in your paper, you may send it via email to me by 2:30 pm on Monday. If I do not receive your paper by 2:30 pm, but receive it by 5:00 pm of the same day, there will be a 5 point penalty. No paper will be accepted after 5 pm of the day it is due.

Grades

Grades will be given on the following basis:

Exam I (Friday, October 5) 100 points
Exam II (Friday, November 9) 100
Eight short papers (25 points each) 200
Final Exam (finals week) 150
Class contribution* 75
Total 625

*You should read assigned material before class. The grade for class contribution is not for your physical presence in class but for your thoughtful contributions to the class discussion.

Course Outline

#	Topic	Assigned Readings
1	Introduction	Hunt "Preface" (pp. xv-xvii), L&C pp. 1-18
2	The early developments of economic thought	Scholasticism L&C pp. 20-35, Huberman pp. 3-16, Roll pp. 40-53, The decline of scholasticism Hunt pp. 1-30, Huberman pp. 17-54, Mercantilism L&C pp. 36-50, Huberman pp. 55-136, Roll pp. 54-76, Physiocrats L&C pp. 50-59, G&R pp. 21-45
3	Classical political economy	The time Huberman pp. 137-182, Smith L&C pp. 60-98, Hunt pp. 34-56, Malthus L&C pp. 99-103, pp. 134-136, Hunt pp. 57-79, Ricardo L&C pp. 103-127, pp. 132-143
4	Utopians socialists and Marx	Utopian socialists, Sismondi G&R pp. 184-192, Saint-Simon G&R pp. 211-236, Owen and Fourier G&R pp. 242-265, Proudhon G&R pp. 298-307, Marx L&C pp. 174-209
5	Neoclassical economics	Jevons, Menger & Walras L&C pp. 210-228, Marshall L&C pp. 285-296
6	Institutionalism	Veblen Hunt pp. 299-327
7	Keynesian economics	Keynes L&C pp. 453-474

Final

From now you will be on your own in deciphering the type of economics that you confront. I would like to recommend the following two books as a follow up to this course. Try to read them to see how some contemporary economists disagree with each other on som of the methodological issues that we have studied in this class.

Arjo Klamer, Conversation with Economists, Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Allanheld, 1984.
Donald McCloskey, The Rhetoric of Economics, Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1985.
History of Economic Thought 4 Sohrab Behdad