History of economic thought

'What is the legitimate role of the state, if any, in the economy?'

That is a fundamental question - perhaps the fundamental question - for economics. How do (micro level) agent interests and behaviours interact to generate (macro level) social outcomes?

Are those outcomes desirable, or should society as a whole, in the form of the state, intervene to modify them? In this module you will investigate these questions and explore the answers that have been given by economic thinkers.

A consideration of a problem in twentieth‐century political economy, the prisoners' dilemma, will establish the currency of this theme.

We will then turn our attention to Adam Smith's 'invisible hand', the evolutionary theory of Friedrich Hayek, and John Maynard Keynes's theory of effective demand.

Finally we will consider two alternative approaches to these issues, those of Thomas Robert Malthus and Karl Marx.