Recharting the History of Economic Thought
Intro -- Brief Contents -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Contributors -- A Timeline of the Key Economists Covered in This Book -- List of Tables -- List of Figures -- List of Boxes -- 1: INTRODUCTION -- Background -- Origins of the book -- Considerations -- Book structure -- References -- 2: ARE WE ALL RATIONAL, OPTIMISING AGENTS? -- Introduction -- The method of Neoclassical economics -- Behavioural economics -- Smith, morality, and self-interest -- Marx, agency, and class -- Veblen and institutions -- Keynes, uncertainty, and the macroeconomy -- Conclusion -- References -- 3: WHAT IS THE ROLE OF MATHEMATICS IN ECONOMICS? -- Introduction -- Role of mathematics in contemporary economics -- How did economics become so mathematical? -- From classical political economy to the marginalist revolution -- Marginalism and its main contributors -- Jevons -- Walras and Menger -- From pluralism to Arrow and Debreu -- Contrasting the mainstream approach to Smith, Ricardo, Marx, and Keynes -- Smith -- Ricardo -- Marx -- Keynes -- Concluding remarks: consolidating mathematics in economics and its implications -- References -- 4: HOW ARE THINGS PRODUCED? -- Introduction -- Neoclassical production theory -- The production function -- Value and distribution in neoclassical economics -- Alternative approaches -- Transaction costs/contract theory of the firm -- Competence-based theories of the firm -- Smith - the division of labour as the source of the wealth of nations -- Marx - capitalist production as exploitation -- Global value chains: the global division of labour -- Conclusion -- Further reading -- 5: HOW AND WHY ARE THINGS CONSUMED? -- Introduction -- Neoclassical consumer theory -- The utilitarian roots of neoclassical theory -- The model -- The scope of the model - economics imperialism -- Probing the assumptions of the neoclassical model.
