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The module is designed to first present some of the main schools of thought from a historical and methodological perspective. Each week we explore and critically assess the main tenants of each school of thought. In the second part of the module we link history of economic thought and methodology to a specific and contemporary economic question. The second part allows you to engage with current economic issues with an awareness of methodology and methodological differences and with some knowledge of the history of economics.
2019
Level: beginner
History of Economic Thought
This module examines current socio-political issues through the lens of pluralism, that is pluralism of theory, pluralism of method and interdisciplinary pluralism
2020
Level: beginner
Pluralist Economic Analysis
The outbreak of COVID-19 has substantially accelerated the digitalization of the economy. Yet, this unprecedented growth of digital technology brought novel challenges to the labour market. Rise in income inequalities and precarious working conditions or polarization of jobs. In this essay, we try to assess what tools to use to counter these trends.
2021
Level: beginner
Post-pandemic future of work - How does digitization impact labour?
What made the false assumption that saving the economy at all cost during a pandemic so popular? This paper discusses different pathways through the COVID-19 pandemic at national and international level, and their consequences on the health of citizens and their economies.
2021
Level: beginner
How not to save the economy? The interplay of economics and health during the COVID-19 pandemic
This syllabus provides an overview of the contents of the course "Understanding Economic Models" at the University of Helsinki.
2018
Level: beginner
Understanding Economic Models
This chapter by the Centre of Economy Studies provides a map through the complex jungle of economic theories. It provides key insights and ideas for thirteen core topics in economics, organised by selecting the most relevant theoretical approaches per topic and contrasting them with each other.
2021
Level: beginner
Pragmatic Pluralism
This article explores the production function, the prevailing view of capital that underpins it, and the main alternative perspective. By exploring these perspectives, the authors aim to provide students with a foundational understanding of the controversies surrounding the treatment of capital in production, a topic expressly excluded from mainstream textbooks.
2024
Level: beginner
Why We Should Think Twice About Production Functions
In this overview paper, Laura Porak reviews the history of industrial policy in the European Union before the background of a Cultural Political Economy approach.
2023
Level: beginner
History of Industrial Policy in the EU
Usually, Critical Theory and Economics are, for better or worse, no longer seen to be in a continuum. This article by Lukas Meisner serves as an introduction to Critical Theory for all (heterodox) economists, who want to understand and explain what they can, otherwise, just state and describe.
2024
Level: beginner
Critical Theory for Heterodox Economists: Questioning the Premises of Supply and Demand
Extractivism is a development model based on exploiting and exporting raw materials. It is fundamental to reproducing entire societies, mainly in the Global South, while generating manifold dilemmas. This text situates extractivism within the broader landscape of global economic asymmetries, emphasizing the role of rents—excess revenues generated from resource extraction due to international price differentials—as a central analytical lens.
2025
Level: beginner
The Political Economy of Extractivism
For a long time, price controls were considered taboo, as neoliberal economic theory assumes that prices are supposedly formed freely by supply and demand. But especially in times of crisis, the state must intervene and cap prices to protect wage earners from excessive burdens. However, the how matters.
2025
Level: beginner
Price Controls Against Inflation
The global economic and political order is undergoing rapid and profound transformation. We are witnessing a far-reaching "organic" crisis of the global economic world order, which may have started with the financial crisis of 2007/2008 but now enters a new, much more dynamic phase.
Level: advanced
Towards a New Economics of Collapse and Construction
Complexity economics focuses on interactions and interdependencies between individuals and structures in economic systems. Those are systems of organised complexity. High importance is given to the analysis of networks.
Complexity Economics
The website contains a vast amount of information on the history of economic thought. It presents thinkers, their main works (and links to those works) and schools of thought which are sorted by political economy schools, neoclassical schools, alternative schools as well as thematic schools.
Level: advanced
The history of economic thought website
An Introduction to the Political Theory of John Maynard Keynes. John Maynard Keynes was arguably the greatest economist of the 20th century. He discovered the idea that governments should stimulate demand during economic downturns.
2017
Level: beginner
An Introduction to the Political Theory of John Maynard Keynes
In this talk, Eric Beinhocker outlines his ideas of how to ensure a just and sustainable future for Humanity: This includes his interesting Russian Doll approach to unpacking 20th-century economics and proposals of new theories to underpin a new economic system.
2019
Level: beginner
Economic Transition in the Anthropocene
Ever wondered how a rap battle between John Maynard Keynes and F.A. Hayek would sound like?
2010
Level: beginner
Fear the Boom and Bust: Keynes vs. Hayek - The Original Economics Rap Battle!
An overview of the last century economic theories asking what makes a heterodox economist. This lecture focuses on the evolution of the various academic traditions in economics. Lavoie presents his own typology for categorising seminal work within the post-Keynesian tradition while leaving space to acknowledge that categories are not binary, but can be used to help understand the different traditions, and how they have developed over the last decades.
2019
Level: advanced
History and fundamentals of Post Keynesian Macroeconomics
In this podcast, Laura Basu speaks with a range of expert academics and public speakers – such as Jayati Ghosh, Yanis Varoufakis, Walden Bello, and Ashish Kothari about how the rules of the global economy are fostering the inequality and underdevelopment we see today.
2020
Level: beginner
Decolonising the Global Economy
Could working less make people and the planet better off? Find out in this dossier by exploring the landscape of working time reduction policies and their potential for reimagining, restructuring, and redistributing time as a political resource in the 21st century economy.
2020
Level: beginner
Could Working Time Reduction Policies Save People and the Planet?
In this lecture, Branko Milanovic gives an overview of the concept of inequality as conceptualized within the classical school of thought.
2020
Level: beginner
Income Inequality in Quesnay, Smith, Ricardo and Marx (Part 1: Quesnay, Smith)
Exploring Economics, an open-source e-learning platform, giving you the opportunity to discover & study a variety of economic theories, topics, and methods.
2019
Level: advanced
Karl Marx: An early post-Keynesian?
This paper posts a heretical question: Is economics a science after all? The answer to this question impinges on the methodology, hypotheses and results of economic research.
Level: advanced
Is economics a science?
Have you ever thought about the role of civil society and the evolution of economy in one breath? This one hour long interview of Daron Acemoğlu (MIT) and Martin Wolf (Financial Times) by Rethinking Economy NL gives you much inspiration for it.
2021
Level: beginner
Socioeconomics of Disruptive Tech
Exploring Economics, an open-access e-learning platform, giving you the opportunity to discover & study a variety of economic theories, topics, and methods.
2015
Level: expert
Socialist Calculation and Market Socialism
In this short video, John Holmwood problematizes Marxian Economics from a post-colonial perspective.
2021
Level: advanced
Marx: Colonialism, Class and Capitalism
The historian Nicholas Mulder talks about the Western sanctions against Russia in the context of the Ukraine Crisis. He explains that the current sanctions are unprecedented in terms of size, speed and scope, expected consequences as well as potential drawbacks and problems.
2022
Level: beginner
Can Sanctions Stop Russia?
Sabel and Zeitlin present the persistence of small firms in Europe against the rise of mass production and modern enterprises Their article starts by analysing how mass production can be considered a historical necessity for the classical view as it is a highly specialized structure where man and machine can …
1985
Level: advanced
Historical Alternatives to Mass Production: Politics, Markets and Technology in Nineteenth-Century Industrialization
Jo Michell discusses some key implications of climate change regarding the standard policy prescriptions of Post-Keynesian economics, particularly relating to the possible necessity of consumption constraints and the presence of recurrent inflation.
2022
Level: beginner
Macroeconomic Policy Coordination: A New Approach for the End of Abundance
This syllabus provides an overview of the contents of the course "The Philosophy and Methodology of Economics" at the Duke University
2022
Level: beginner
The Philosophy and Methodology of Economics
In the debate about a sustainable and livable future, the critique of work is an essential perspective. In this contribution, Maja Hoffmann explores the tension between the environmentally harmful effects of work on the one hand and the systematic compulsion of work on the other.
2024
Level: beginner
How can post-work (critiques of work) enrich the climate debate?
In this course you will study the different facets of human development in topics such as education health gender the family land relations risk informal and formal norms public policy and institutions While studying each of these topics we will delve into the following questions What determines the decisions of …
Level: advanced
Foundations of Development Policy: Advanced Development Economics

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