User:LGreg/sandbox/Approaches to Knowledge (LG seminar 2020/21)/Seminar 18/History/History of Economics

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History of Economics[edit | edit source]

Founding of economics as a discipline[edit | edit source]

Works on economics can be traced back to early human civilization, as far as to the ancient Greek and Middle East periods. The Greek poet Hesiod worked on the concept of scarcity in his poems as early as in mid 8th century BC, and is referred by some in the discipline as “the first economist”. [1] However, the founding of economics as a discipline itself is widely recognized as marked by the publication of Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations in 1776.[2] The book introduced the idea of labour, capital and land as the cornerstones of contemporary economic studies,[3] and was said to move the studies of economics out from the discipline of philosophy and as an independent discipline.[4]

Key moments of change in economics[edit | edit source]

The theory brought forward by Adam Smith in the mid-late 17th century that marked the beginning of economics as a discipline is known as classical economics or classical political economy. This school of thought, promoting a laissez-faire form of market,[5] was further developed by a group of British economists such as Thomas Malthus, David Ricardo, and John Stuart Mill from the late 17th century to the mid 18th century.

A key moment of change occurs in the year 1867, when the German economist Karl Marx published the first volume of Das Capital, a critique on how the role of capital in classical economics is exploiting labour.[6] The work shifts the approach of the economic discipline to a more critical direction, and also brought the concept of morality into the centre of the discipline.[7] and the school of thought that follows is known as Marxian economics.[8]

At the same time in the late 19th century, different schools of thoughts under the tenet of neoclassical economics started to develop in Europe and America. The term was coined by American economist Thorstein Veblen in 1900.[9] It based its thoughts on the laissez-faire principles of classical economics, but shifts the focus to analysing goods, income, and output.[10] It is also when the famous supply and demand model, consumer choice model and firms and production models were introduced and refined. Along with Keynesian economics, it dominated the discipline in the second half of the 20th century, and shaped the micro-macro distinction in economics studies that are still followed today.[11]

Schools of thoughts in economics flourished throughout the 20th century under the core assumptions of neoclassical and Keynesian economics, bringing forward key ideas such as game theory, positive/normative analysis, globalization etc..[12] In 2008, the global financial crisis further diversified the different school of thoughts in the discipline of economics, after mainstream economists failed to predict the crisis.[13] It shifts the focus of the discipline to the study of global financial market and its volatility in the digital era, and how fintech can change global economic dynamics.

Intersection of economics and demography[edit | edit source]

In 1798, Reverend Thomas Malthus first developed the field of demographic or population economics, which applies economic principles such as microeconomic or macroeconomic theories to the discipline of demography - known as the statistical study of populations.[14][15] Demographic economics entails the study of how socioeconomic factors affect the cause and consequences of demographic change.[16] These factors may include: fertility, urbanisation, mortality, age, gender, ethnicity, marriage, divorce and population growth.[14]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ Rothbard, Murray N. (1995). Economic Thought Before Adam Smith: Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought. Vol. I. Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-945466-48-2.
  2. ↑ Barber, William (2012). A History of Economic Thought. Wesleyan University Press. p. 17. ISBN 0819569976.
  3. ↑ Smith, Adam (1776). An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. London: Methuen & Co., Ltd. ISBN 0865970068.
  4. ↑ Blaug, Mark (February 03, 2020). Economics. Encyclopædia Britannica. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ↑ Mill, John Stuart (1848). Principles of Political Economy (PDF). Project Gutenberg.
  6. ↑ Marx, Karl (1867). Das Kapital: Kritik der politischen Oekonomie. Hamburg: Verlag von Otto Meissner.
  7. ↑ Mandel, Ernest (1987). Marx, Karl Heinrich (1818–1883) in Eatwell, John; Milgate, Murray; Newman, Peter (eds.). The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics. The New Palgrave. ISBN 9780333786765.
  8. ↑ Wolff and Resnick, Richard and Stephen (1987). Economics: Marxian versus Neoclassical. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0801834805.
  9. ↑ Colander, David (2000). The Death of Neoclassical Economics. Journal of the History of Economic Thought.
  10. ↑ Campus, Antonietta (1987). Marginal Economics in Eatwell, John; Milgate, Murray; Newman, Peter (eds.). The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics. The New Palgrave.
  11. ↑ Weintraub, E. Roy (2007). "Neoclassical Economics". The Concise Encyclopedia Of Economics. Liberty Fund, Inc.
  12. ↑ Colander, David (2000). The Death of Neoclassical Economics. Journal of the History of Economic Thought.
  13. ↑ Coy, Peter (2009). "What Good Are Economists Anyway. Bloomberg Businessweek.
  14. ↑ a b Kelley A, Schmidt R. Economic Demography. The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics [Internet]. 2008 [Accessed 9 November 2020];:1-12. Available from: https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1057%2F978-1-349-95121-5_2253-1
  15. ↑ Economic and Social Research Council. Social science disciplines - Economic and Social Research Council [Internet]. Esrc.ukri.org. 2020 [Accessed 9 November 2020]. Available from: https://esrc.ukri.org/about-us/what-is-social-science/social-science-disciplines/
  16. ↑ Lund University - School of Economic and Management. Population economics, Economic demography [Internet]. Lund University School of Economics and Management. 2020 [Accessed 9 November 2020]. Available from: https://www.lusem.lu.se/research/research-areas/economic-history/economic-demography#:~:text=Economic%20demography%20deals%20with%20the,individual%2C%20family%20and%20societal%20level.
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