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Marx’s theory of the falling rate of profit is not only empirically borne out, but the theory he proposed seems to describe accurately how that happens. Furthermore, the whole process is useful for understanding the history of contemporary capitalism. 2020 Level: beginner On the Rate of Profit Cahal Moran Rethinking Economics Exploring Economics, an open-source e-learning platform, giving you the opportunity to discover & study a variety of economic theories, topics, and methods. 2020 Level: beginner A Time for Precaution Cahal Moran Rethinking Economics Firms are the primary places where economic activity takes place in modern capitalist economies: they are where most stuff is produced; where many of us spend 40 hours a week; and where big decisions are made about how to allocate resources. Establishing how they work is hugely important because it helps us to understand patterns of production and consumption, including how firms will react to changes in economic conditions and policy. And a well-established literature – led by post-Keynesians and institutionalists – holds that the best way to determine how firms work is to…wait for it...ask firms how they work. This a clearly sensible proposition that is contested in economics for some reason, but we’ll ignore the controversy here and just explore the theory that springs from this approach. 2020 Level: beginner The ‘How Firms Work’ Approach to How Firms Work Cahal Moran Rethinking Economics 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 Vera Leuner, Navaneeth M S, Leandro Pereira Monteiro, Eduardo Lacerda Camargo Bisneto Exploring Economics What influence do changes in tax policy or state decisions on expenditure have on economic growth? For decades, this question has been controversially debated. 2020 Level: advanced What is the fiscal multiplier and why is it so controversial? Sebastian Gerchert Exploring Economics In this essay the author elaborates on the EU's perspective on the fast growing sector of the platform economy. 2019 Level: beginner Sharing is Caring? On the EU- Narrative on Platform Economy Laura Porak Exploring Economics This paper starts with an evaluation of three common arguments against pluralism in economics: (1) the claim that economics is already pluralist, (2) the argument that if there was the need for greater plurality, it would emerge on its own, and (3) the assertion that pluralism means ‘anything goes’ and is thus unscientific. Pluralist responses to all three arguments are summarized. The third argument is identified to relate to a greater challenge for pluralism: an epistemological trade-off between diversity and consensus that suggests moving from a discussion about ‘pros’ and ‘cons’ towards a discussion about the adequate degree of plurality. We instantiate the trade-off by showing how it originates from two main challenges: the need to derive adequate quality criteria for a pluralist economics, and the necessity to propose strategies that ensure the communication across different research programs. The paper concludes with some strategies to meet these challenges. 2017 Level: beginner Pluralism in economics: its critiques and their lessons Claudius Gräbner, Birte Strunk Journal of Economic Methodology The chapter by the Centre for Economy Studies introduces interdisciplinary economic subdisciplines and their importance for economics education. 2021 Level: beginner Interdisciplinary Economics Sam de Muijnck and Joris Tieleman Economy Studies One hundred years ago the idea of 'the economy' didn't exist. Now, improving the economy has come to be seen as perhaps the most important task facing modern societies. Politics and policymaking are conducted in the language of economics and economic logic shapes how political issues are thought about and addressed. 2017 Level: advanced The Econocracy Joe Earle, Cahal Moran, Zach Ward-Perkins Manchester University Press Economic sociology is an entire subfield and one could write an series on it, so I’m going to stick to probably the most prominent economic sociologist and the founder of ‘new economic sociology’, Mark Granovetter. 2020 Level: beginner Economic Sociology: the Contributions of Mark Granovetter Cahal Moran Rethinking Economics As the Covid-19 fueled economic downturn begins to intensify this winter, an extended study of the Italian cooperative sector’s historical resilience in times of crisis can serve as a learning experience for other countries seeking to create policies that foster more stable economies, with job security, care for marginalized communities and adequate counter-cyclical policies. Particularly, the Italian cooperative sector’s contributions to three aspects should be noted in closing. Firstly, the innovative phenomenon of cooperative enterprises has contributed to social inclusion of immigrant communities, the activation of youth, the unemployed and people with disabilities, a true compensation for both a market and state failure. Secondly, they have contributed to a reduction in income and wealth inequalities at a time when the issue of inequality is of global significance. Thirdly, the Italian cooperative movement has helped local communities revitalize in the face of demographic shifts and rendered them more resilient to the ravages of globalization. Each of these in their own right is a remarkable achievement. 2020 Level: beginner How to strengthen the social economy Jerome Warren Exploring Economics Jihen Chandoul, a member of the Post-Colonialisms Today Working Group, discusses the impact of import-dependency on African food supply chains since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. 2020 Level: beginner Recovering Post-Independence Food Sovereignty for the COVID-19 Crisis Jihen Chandoul Post-Colonialisms Today: postcolonialisms.regionsrefocus.org What are the debates, feminist and otherwise, surrounding the phenomena of globalization? How does a gendered lens complicate our understandings of neoliberal globalization? How are particular labor regimes integral to global restructuring, and how are these gendered? What are the implications of global restructuring for bodies, identities, relations, and movements? 2014 Level: beginner The Gender and Labor of Globalization Clara Freeman Emory University Mainstream economic narratives notably the concept of comparative advantage trade theory which assumes the equal balance of power between parties are deployed to support the merits of Global Value Chains that the global integration via trade creates mutual gains for both developed and developing countries This narrative is advanced in … 2021 Level: beginner World Development under Monopoly Capitalism Benjamin Selwyn Developing Economics This essay suggests to bring together two aspects of economic thought which so far have developed largely separately: degrowth and feminist economics. In this strive, the concept of care work and its role in feminist economics will be introduced and the downsides of the commodification of care work will be discussed. Subsequently, contributions to the discussion on the (re)valuation of care work will be taken into account. 2017 Level: beginner Who cares? A convergence of feminist economics and degrowth Jannis Eicker, Katharina Keil Exploring Economics The core idea of ecological economics is that human economic activity is bound by absolute limits. Interactions between the economy, society and the environment are analysed, while always keeping in mind the goal of a transition towards sustainability. Ecological Economics     The book explores the imperialist tendency inherent in global capitalism by using a rigorous political economy framework. 2019 Level: advanced The Wealth of (some) Nations Zak Cope Pluto Press “Economics is the science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses1.” This is how Lionel Robbins came to define economics in the early 1930s and there is a good chance that many of you heard a variant of this definition in your first Economics 101 lecture. 2021 Level: beginner What is “Economics”? Anas Abu Exploring Economics It is perhaps fitting that the seriousness of the coronavirus threat hit most of the Western world around the Ides of March, the traditional day of reckoning of outstanding debts in Ancient Rome. After all, problems and imbalances have accumulated in the Western capitalist system over four decades, ostensibly since it took the neoliberal road out of the 1970s crisis and kept going along it, heedless of the crises and problems it led to. 2020 Level: beginner The Unexpected Reckoning: Coronavirus and Capitalism Radhika Desai Canadian Dimesion In this essay the author outlines the basis for embracing a post-work agenda, rooted in an emancipatory potential from the domination of waged work, which could help answer both feminist and ecological concerns with work. 2018 Level: beginner Towards a post-work future: a necessary agenda to reconcile feminist & ecological concerns with work Emilie Tricarico Exploring Economics One of the pluralist theories which has gained prominence following the 2008 financial crisis is Hyman Minsky and his Financial Instability Hypothesis (FIH). Minsky was unique in viewing balance sheets and financial flows as the primary components of capitalist economies, and his focus on the financial system meant he was well-equipped for foresee a crisis much like 2008. Although he died long before 2008 his framework anticipated many of the processes which led to the crash, particularly increased risk-taking and financial innovation which would outstrip the abilities of regulators and central banks to manage the system. 2020 Level: beginner Minsky’s Moments Cahal Moran Rethinking Economics Exploring Economics, an open-access e-learning platform, giving you the opportunity to discover & study a variety of economic theories, topics, and methods. 2021 Level: beginner The Political Economy of Inequalities Jürgen Essletzbichler, Andrea Grisold, Hendrik Theine Exploring Economics Introduction Economics is by necessity a multi paradigmatic science Several theoretical structures exist side by side and each theory can never be more than a partial theory Rothschild 1999 Likening scientific work to the self coordinating invisible hand of the market Michael Polanyi cautioned strongly against centralized attempts to steer … 2021 Level: beginner Making Many Maps: Why We Need an Interested Pluralism in Economics and How to Get There Patrick Leon Gross Patrick Léon Gross 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? Eckhart Hein Institute for International Political Economy Berlin A comprehensive account of how government deficits and debt drive inflation 2023 Level: advanced The Fiscal Theory of the Price Level John Cochrane Princeton University Press 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 Laura Porak Exploring Economics The objective of the course is to explore the main strengths and weaknesses of orthodox and heterodox paradigms within development economics. 2019 Level: beginner Issues in Development Economics Hannah Bargawi SOAS University of London In 18th century Europe figures such as Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Friedrich List and Jean Baptiste Colbert developed theories regarding international trade, which either embraced free trade seeing it as a positive sum game or recommended more cautious and strategic approaches to trade seeing it as a potential danger and a rivalry and often as a zero-sum game. What about today? 2016 Level: beginner Free trade in economic theories Exploring Economics Exploring Economics How can we establish new institutions and practices in order to use fare-free public transport as a beacon for sustainable mobility and a low-carbon lifestyle? The author of this essay elaborates on how practice theory and institutional economics can help to answer this question. 2018 Level: advanced Towards a practice of fare-free sustainability Roxana Erath Exploring Economics Feminist economics is a key component of the movement for pluralism in economics and one that has, to some extent, been acknowledged by the mainstream of the profession. It seeks to highlight issues which affect women because (it claims) they have not traditionally been recognised in a field dominated by men. On top of this, it seeks to carve out a space for women in the discipline, both for intrinsic reasons of fairness and diversity and because it means that women’s issues are more likely to be highlighted going forward. 2020 Level: beginner Why Feminist Economics is Necessary Cahal Moran Rethinking Economics From the two premises that (1) economies are complex systems and (2) the accumulation of knowledge about reality is desirable, I derive the conclusion that pluralism with regard to economic research programs is a more viable position to hold than monism. To substantiate this claim an epistemological framework of how scholars study their objects of inquiry and relate their models to reality is discussed. Furthermore, it is argued that given the current institutions of our scientific system, economics self-organizes towards a state of scientific unity. Since such a state is epistemologically inferior to a state of plurality, critical intervention is desirable. 2017 Level: advanced The Complexity of Economies and Pluralism in Economics Claudius Gräbner Johannes Kepler University Linz (ICAE) and University of Duisburg-Essen (IfSO), Journal of Contextual Economics By conducting a discourse analysis (SKAD) in the field of academic economics textbooks, this paper aims at reconstructing frames and identity options offered to undergraduate students relating to the questions ‘Why study economics?’ and ‘Who do I become by studying economics?’. The analysis showed three major frames and respective identity offerings, all of which are contextualized theoretically, with prominent reference to the Foucauldian reflection of the science of Political Economy. Surprisingly, none of them encourages the student to think critically, as could have been expected in a pedagogical context. Taken together, economics textbooks appear as a “total structure of actions brought to bear upon possible action” (Foucault), therefore, as a genuine example of Foucauldian power structures. 2019 Level: beginner The power of economic textbooks: A discourse analysis Lukas Bäuerle Institute of Economics and Philosophy Cusanus Hochschule

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