COURSE CALENDAR
Fall 2006
Assigned readings are in boldface type. The assignments should be
read before the class period to which they correspond. Optional readings are
in ordinary type.
Backhouse refers to The Ordinary Business of Life
by Roger E. Backhouse. EAS refers to the Essential Adam Smith.
Week 1: August 21, 23
Monday: Introduction to, and overview of, the course, writing
assignments, and exams; Discussion:
Different views of the place of the economy within society
Wednesday: Discussion: The Ancient
and Medieval Worlds
- Backhouse, Chp 1
- Aristotle, "On Money" (packet)
- Questions
Week 2: August 28, 30
Monday: Seminar:
Just Price
***Ticket to Talk***
- Raymond de Roover, "The
Concept of the Just Price: Theory and Economic Policy," Journal
of Economic History 18, December 1959, pp. 418-434
- David D. Friedman, "In Defense of Thomas Aquinas and
the Just Price," History of Political Economy 12, Summer 1980,
pp. 234-42 (packet)
- George W. Wilson, "The Economics of the Just Price," History
of Political Economy 7, Spring 1975, pp. 56-74
- Stephen T. Worland, "Justum Pretium: One More Round in an
'Endless Series'," History of Political Economy 9, Winter 1977,
pp. 504-21
- Barry Gordon, Economic Analysis before Adam Smith, pp. 174-79
- Questions
- Questions and Answers
Wednesday: Discussion:
The Modern World View
Week 3: September 4, 6
Monday: Labor Day
Wednesday: Lecture: Revolution
in World Views
Week 4: September 11, 13
Monday: Seminar:
Mercantilism
***Ticket
to Talk***
- Thomas Mun, England's
Treasure by Forraign Trade, Chps. 2-4 only
- Edward Misselden, The Circle of Commerce, "Of
Exchanges in General" (packet)
- Charles Wilson, "Treasure
and Trade Balances: The Mercantilist Problem," Economic History
Review 2 (New Series), no. 2, 1949, pp. 152-57 only
- J.D. Gould, "The
Trade Crisis of the Early 1620's and English Economic Thought," Economic
History Review, June 1955, pp. 121-33
- Barry Baysinger, Robert B. Ekelund, Jr, and Robert D. Tollison, "Mercantilism
as a Rent-Seeking Society," in James M. Buchanan, Robert D. Tollison,
and Gordon Tullock, eds., Toward a Theory of the Rent-Seeking Society,
pp. 235-68
- Notes and Questions
- Questions and Answers
Wednesday: Discussion: Eighteenth-Century
France
- Backhouse, Chp 5
- Walter Eltis, "The Grand Tableau of François Quesnay's
Economics," European Journal of the History of Economic Thought
3 (Spring 1996): 21-43
- Walter Eltis, "How Quesnay's Tableau Economique Offered a
Deeper Analysis of the Predicament of France," Journal of the History
of Economic Thought 24, March 2002, pp. 39-53
Week 5: September 18, 20
Monday: Seminar:
Turgot
***Ticket
to Talk***
- Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Reflections on the Formation
and Distribution of Wealth (selections; packet)
- Anthony Brewer, "Turgot:
Founder of Classical Economics," Economica 54, November
1987, pp. 417-28
- P.D. Groenewegen, "A Reappraisal of Turgot's Theory of Value, Exchange,
and Price Determination," History of Political Economy 2, Spring
1970, pp. 177-196
- Turgot Questions
Wednesday: Discussion:
The Scottish Enlightenment; David Hume
Paper topics due
Week 6: September 25, 27
Monday: Exam 1
(first 50 minutes of class)
Take-Home
Component (due at the beginning of class; typed, double-spaced)
Lecture: Adam Smith, Theory
of Moral Sentiments (last 25 minutes of class)
Wednesday: Seminar:
Adam Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments
- EAS: , 57-147
- Group Readings (to be assigned)
- Religious Beliefs and Economic Growth 1,
2
Note: This is a special day; plan on being in class. As group members, each
of you will be contributing to the discussion, both orally and in writing. This
is the course project.
Week 7: October 2, 4
Monday: Discussion:
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
Wednesday: Discussion:
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
Week 8: October 9, 11
Monday: Seminar:
Malthus on Population
Wednesday: Lecture:
Ricardian Economics
Week 9: October 16, 18
Monday: Discussion:
Classical Economics after Ricardo
- Backhouse, Chp 7, pp. 141-50, 153-56
- Frank W. Fetter, "The Rise and Decline of Ricardian Economics,"
History of Political Economy 1, Fall 1969, pp. 370-87 (packet)
- S.G. Checkland, "The
Propagation of Ricardian Economics in England," Economica
(New Series) 16, February 1949, pp. 40-52
- John Stuart Mill, "Of
the Influence of Consumption on Production," in Some Unsettled
Questions in Political Economy, pp. 37-55
Annotated outlines of term paper due
Wednesday: Lecture
and Seminar: Marxian Economics
- Backhouse, Chp 7, pp. 156-65
- George R. Boyer, "The
Historical Background of the Communist Manifesto," Journal of
Economic Perspectives 12, Fall 1998, pp. 151-74
- Weintraub, E. Roy. Locating Marx after the Fall: Introduction, 27.1 (1995)
: 109-10.
- Anthony Brewer, "A Minor Post-Ricardian? Marx as an Economist,"
History of Political Economy 27, Spring 1995, pp. 111-45
- Comments by J.E. Elliott (147-58), Duncan K. Foley (159-65), Samuel
Hollander (167-71), M.C. Howard (173-76), J.E. King (177-82), Takashi
Negishi (183-88), A. Roncaglia (189-93), Margaret Schabas (195-99), and
Ian Steedman (201-06).
- An interesting
note found on MarginalRevolution.com, an interesting economics blog
Week 10: October 23, 25
Monday: Discussion:
European Economic Thought, 1870-1914
- Backhouse, Chp 8
- Herbert S. Foxwell, "The
Economic Movement in England," Quarterly Journal of Economics
2, October 1887, pp. 84-103
- William Cunningham, "The
Relativity of Economic Doctrine," Economic Journal 2, March
1892, pp. 1-16
- William Cunningham, "The
Perversion of Economic History," Economic Journal 2, September
1892, pp. 491-506
- Alfred Marshall, "Reply
[to Cunningham]," Economic Journal 2, September 1892, pp.
507-19
Wednesday: Seminar:
Jevons, Menger, and Walras and Lecture:
Menger's Economics
- Karen I. Vaughn, Austrian Economics in America: The
Migration of a Tradition, Chp 2, "Carl Menger and the Foundations
of Austrian Economics," pp. 12-32 (packet)
- Steven Horwitz, "Subjectivism" in Peter Boettke, ed., The
Elgar Companion to Austrian Economic, pp. 17-22
- Carl Menger, "On
the Origin of Money," Economic Journal 2, June 1892, pp.
239-255
- James Bonar, "The
Austrian Economists and Their Point of View," Quarterly Journal
of Economics 3, October 1888, pp. 1-31
- James Bonar, "The
Positive Theory of Capital," Quarterly Journal of Economics 3,
January 1889, pp. 336-51
Week 11: October 30, November 1
Monday: Lecture:
Alfred Marshall
- Ronald H. Coase, "Marshall on Method," Journal of Law and Economics
18 (April 1975): 25-31
- Philip L. Williams, "A Reconstruction of Marshall's Temporary Equilibrium
Pricing Model," HOPE 18 (Winter 1986): 639-53
- Neil B. Niman, "Biological Analogies in Marshall's Work," Journal
of the History of Economic Thought 13 (Spring 1991): 19-36
- John Maloney, The Professionalization of Economics: Alfred Marshall and
the Dominance of Orthodoxy, Chapter 2, "Marshall's Objectives and
Marshallian Orthodoxy": 22-56
- Piero Sraffa, "The
Laws of Returns under Competitive Conditions," Economic Journal
36, December 1926, pp. 535-50
Wednesday:
Exam 2
Take-Home
Component
Week 12: November 6, 8
Monday: Discussion:
The Rise of American Economics, 1870-1914
Wednesday: Discussion:
Money and the Business Cycle, 1898 to 1939
- Backhouse, Chp 10
- David Laidler, Fabricating the Keynesian Revolution, Chp 1,
"An Overview," pp.3-24 (packet)
- Rough drafts of term paper due
Week 13: November 13, 15
Monday: Lecture
and Discussion:
The General Theory
Wednesday: : Econometrics and Mathematical Economics, 1930
to the Present: The Formalization of Economics
- Backhouse, Chp 11
- Mark Blaug, "The Formalist Revolution of the 1950s," Journal
of the History of Economic Thought 25, June 2003, pp. 145-56
- Philip Mirowski, "The
When, the How, and the Why of Mathematical Expression in the History of Economic
Analysis," Journal of Economic Perspectives 5, Winter 1991,
pp. 145-57
- James E. Hartley, "Retrospectives:
The Origins of the Representative Agent," Journal of Economic
Perspectives 10, Spring 1996, pp. 169-177
Thanksgiving Break
Week 14: November 27, 29
Monday: Lecture:
The Socialist Calculation Debate
- Backhouse, Chp 12
- Karen I. Vaughn, "The Socialist Calculation Debate," The
Elgar Companion to Austrian Economics, pp. 478-84 (packet)
- Questions to Consider while Reading Vaughn
- Esteban F. Thomsen, "Prices and Knowledge," The
Elgar Companion to Austrian Economics, pp. 167-72 (packet)
- Friedrich A. Hayek, "Economics
and Knowledge," Economica 4 (new series), 1937, pp. 33-54
- Friedrich A. Hayek, "The
Use of Knowledge in Society," American Economic Review 35,
September 1945, pp. 519-30
- Friedrich A. Hayek, "The Meaning of Competition," in Hayek, Individualism
and Economic Order, pp. 92-106
- Steven Horwitz, "Monetary Calculation and Mises's Critique of Planning,"
History of Political Economy 30, Fall 1998, pp. 427-50
- Don Lavoie, Rivalry and Central Planning: The Socialist Calculation
Debate Reconsidered, Chp. 1
- Joseph Persky, "Retrospectives:
Lange and von Mises, Large-Scale Enterprises, and the Economic Case for Socialism,"
Journal of Economic Perspectives 5, Autumn 1991, pp. 229-36
Wednesday: Discussion:
Economists and Policy, 1939 to the Present: Keynesian Macroeconomic Policy and
the Monetarist Counter-Revolution
- Paul A. Samuelson and Robert M. Solow, "Analytical
Aspects of Anti-Inflation Policy," American Economic Association
Papers and Proceedings, May 1960, pp. 177-194
- J. Bradford De Long, "Keynesianism,
Pennsylvania Avenue Style: Some Economic Consequences of the Employment Act
of 1946," Journal of Economic Perspectives 10, Summer 1996,
pp. 41-53
- Milton Friedman, "The
Role of Monetary Policy," American Economic Review 57, March
1968, pp. 1-17
Term papers due
Week 15: December 4, 6
Monday: Seminar:
Expanding the Discipline
Ticket
to Talk
Questions
New Institutional and Modern Austrian Economics
- Ronald H. Coase, "The
Nature of the Firm," Economica (N.S.) 4, November 1937,
pp. 386-405
- Paul Heyne, "Supply and Demand" in The Elgar Companion to
Austrian Economics, pp. 137-42
- Gerald P. O'Driscoll and Mario J. Rizzo, The Economics of Time and Ignorance
(London and New York: Routledge, 1985, 1996)
- Ronald Coase, "The
New Institutional Economics," American Economic Association Papers
and Proceedings, May 1998, pp. 72-74
- Avner Greif, "Historical
and Comparative Institutional Analysis," American Economic Association
Papers and Proceedings, May 1998, pp. 80-84
- Victor Nee, "Norms
and Networks in Economic and Organizational Performance," American
Economic Association Papers and Proceedings, May 1998, pp. 85-89
- Oliver E. Williamson, "The
Institutions of Governance," American Economic Association Papers
and Proceedings, May 1998, pp. 75-79
- Oliver E. Williamson, "The
New Institutional Economics: Taking Stock, Looking Ahead," Journal
of Economic Literature, September 2000, pp. 595-613
Wednesday: Lecture:
Behavioral Economics
Finals Week
Exam 3, Tuesday, 12 December, 1:00 p.m.
Take-Home Component
Short Survey
