Faculty of Economics and Business
BACHELOR IN ECONOMICS THIRD YEAR Course
History of Economic Thought
Code
802369
Module
Spanish Economy, International and Sectorial
Area
Economic History
Nature
Optative
Credits
Attendance
2,2
4
Non Attendance
1,8
Year
3
Semester
6
COORDINATION DEPARTMENT Historia e Instituciones Económicas I
COORDINATOR AND CONTACT Fernando Méndez Ibisate;
[email protected]
SYNOPSIS BRIEF DESCRIPTION Analysis of the major authors and Schools of Thought that have produced the theories and tools employed by economists.
PRE-REQUISITES Basic knowledge of Economic History, Microeconomics and Macroeconomics.
OBJECTIVES - To learn the theories that the major economists have presented throughout history to solve the main economic problems that they have faced. - For the student to make use of the works of the great economists of the past. - To develop capacities for exposition, analysis and debate in an academic seminar.
Faculty of Economics and Business
COMPETENCES General: CG1; CG2; CG3; CG4 Transversal: CT1; CT2; CT3 Specific: CE1; CE6
LEARNING METHODOLOGY A mixed methodology of teaching and learning will be used in all educational activities with the aim of encouraging students to develop a collaborative and cooperative attitude in the pursuit of knowledge.
TOPICS COVERED (Syllabus) SCHOLASTICISM AND PRE-CLASSICS a. Medieval economics and late Spanish scholastics b. Mercantilism c. Pre-classicism: Cantillon d. Physiocracy THE CLASSICAL SCHOOL a. Introduction b. Adam Smith c. David Ricardo d. Thomas Robert Malthus e. John Stuart Mill THE MARGINAL REVOLUTION a. Introduction b. The marginalist economists
TEACHING ACTIVITIES DISTRIBUTION Theoretical lessons
% of Total Credits
40%
Practical lessons
% of Total Credits
5%
Other activities
% of Total Credits
55%
Personal and group tutoring (5%); assessment activities (5%); presentation of papers by students, individually or in small groups (20%); hours of study (25%).
Faculty of Economics and Business
ASSESSMENT Exams
% Share of Final Grade
60%
Final exam. The final exam will be based both in the theoretical and the practical classes: it will include a textual analysis.
Other activities
% Share of Final Grade
30%
Including exercises on textual analysis in seminars (20%) and the presentation of papers (10%).
Other activities
% Share of Final Grade
10%
Active participation in the lectures and seminars.
EVALUATION CRITERIA In the “convocatoria ordinaria” it will be considered that the student has taken the course (and graded accordingly) if he/she participates in the course up to the point indicated by the professor. In the “convocatoria extraordinaria” it will be considered that the student has taken the course (and graded accordingly) if he/she takes the final exam.
Faculty of Economics and Business
TIMETABLE Week 1
Topic Introduction to the History of Economic Thought.
In-class activities • The course. • Syllabus and bibliography • Overview of the evolution of economic thought.
Out of class activities • To study8. • Virtual Campus. • Teamworking.
2
SCHOLASTICISM AND PRECLASSICS. Introduction. The problems studied by the ancient and medieval economists: value, trade, Exchange, Money, credit, division of labour, private property, political and economic organization of society.
•
Presentation of the seminars.
•
Work distribution. Tutoring.
3
SCHOLASTICISM AND PRECLASSICS. Medieval economics.
4
SCHOLASTICISM AND PRECLASSICS. Spanish economists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The problems of value, usury and the quantity theory of Money.
•
Seminar. Adam Smith: division of labour, price theory, systems of political economy.
5
SCHOLASTICISM AND PRECLASSICS. Mercantilism. Reference to the Spanish arbitristas, Colbertism and cameralism.
•
Guide to sources in print or the internet. Teamworking. Tutoring.
6
7
8
9
• •
SCHOLASTICISM AND PRECLASSICS. Cantillon. David Hume and the specie-flow mechanism theory. Critique of mercantilism. SCHOLASTICISM AND PRECLASSICS. Physiocracy. Assumptions of the physiocratic model. The Tableau Économique. THE CLASSICAL SCHOOL. Introduction. Main features and problems of the classical school of economics.
•
Seminar. David Ricardo: value, rent, foreign trade, technological unemployment.
•
Seminar. Thomas Robert Malthus: population, value, effective demand and gluts. •
THE CLASSICAL SCHOOL. Adam Smith.
• • 10
THE CLASSICAL SCHOOL. David Ricardo.
•
Seminar. John Stuart Mill: property, production and distribution, value, foreign trade, liberalism versus
Guide to sources in print or the internet. Teamworking. Tutoring.
Faculty of Economics and Business interventionism. 11
THE CLASSICAL SCHOOL. Thomas Robert Malthus.
• • •
12
THE CLASSICAL SCHOOL. John Stuart Mill.
13
THE MARGINAL REVOLUTION. Definition of marginalism: possible explanations of the marginal revolution. Changes or continuity in relation to the classical model.
14
THE MARGINAL REVOLUTION. Main marginalist authors.
15
THE MARGINAL REVOLUTION. General equilibrium vs. partial equilibrium: Marshall and Walras.
•
Guide to sources in print or the internet. Teamworking. Tutoring.
Seminar. William Stanley Jevons: value, exchange and labour market. • • •
Guide to sources in print or the internet. Teamworking. Tutoring.
•
Final tutoring.
RESOURCES BASIC BIBLIOGRAPHY • Robert B. Ekelund Jr. and Robert F. Hébert, A History of Economic Theory and Method, Mc Graw-Hill. • Marjorie Grice-Hutchinson, Early Economic Thought in Spain, 1177-1740, George Allen and Unwin.
• D. P. O'Brien, The classical economists revisited, Princeton University Press.
COMPLEMENTARY BIBLIOGRAPHY The lecturer will provide the list of complementary bibliography for the theoretical and practical classes.
OTHER RESOURCES • University Library.
• The Online Library of Liberty: http://www.econlib.org/
