HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT

SECS-P/04 - 9 CFU - 1° Semester

Teaching Staff

FRANCA PIROLO


Learning Objectives

  1. Knowledge and understanding. The course aims to give students thetools to know and understand the main economic theories in their historical path, from the eighteenth to the twentieth century: from Mercantilism to Quesnay's Physiocrat School, from the thought of Smith, Ricardo and Marx (Classical School), to the Marginalist School, from the neoclassical to the "General Theory" of J.M. Keynes.
  2. Applying knowledgeand understanding. The student through the knowledge and tha analysis of the historical dimension in economic theories must be able to interpret economic facts by combining the narration of the authors with the dominant paradigm of the period considered.
  3. Making judgments. The student who has acquired the key concepts of economic theories must demonstrate the abilityof a personal and critical interpretation of the issues treated, considering that the economic theories have matured at different times and that economic theorists had to confront with various historical realities.
  4. Communication skills. The didactics aime to provide students by classroom discussions and group or individual workshops with debate skills, focusing on improving the public speech skills.
  5. Learning skills. The goal of this course is to provide students with the elements that enable them to analyze the facts and the problems of the economics, to identify possible connections with other branches of knowledge and to evaluate the economic models and their developments throughout the centuries.

Course Structure

Frontal lessons with use of slides, classroom discussions, in-depth readings, seminars and possible tests during the course, aimed to verify the knowledge acquired.



Detailed Course Content

Studying the thinking of economists is important to understand the usefulness of political economy and the economic theories that have developed and alternated over time. The economy today is a fundamental component of our culture and it is important to deepen the thinking of economists that is still little known. It is essential to understand the concepts of income, wealth, division of labor, distribution of wealth and their evolution over the centuries but also to enter into the lively debate that has developed among economists, always closely linked to history and politics and that has accompanied the development of human societies, orienting opinions and convictions that have led to important and decisive economic choices for our sociability.



Textbook Information

A. RONCAGLIA, THE WEALTH OF IDEAS: AN HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT, ROMA-BARI, LATERZA 2012 (chapters from 2 to 16)




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