51³ÉÈËÁÔÆæ

Course Description

Summary

Most introductory economics courses represent the economy as detached from history, institutions and the environment and rely on assumptions about human behavior that typically do not line up with what we know about how people make decisions. Strict adherence to the dominant neoclassical model of economics has led us to financial crisis, environmental damage and rising income inequality. In this course we will learn the basics of microeconomic and macroeconomic theory under the neoclassical model to understand concepts such as supply and demand, wage determination and monetary and fiscal policy, while situating our analysis in a variety of contexts and referencing empirical work that challenges the assumptions underlying the theory. What are the historical origins of the capitalist system? How do we conceptualize the economy? What motivates individual decision-making? Do prices reflect value? Does trade always benefit both parties? Is the economy a subsystem of the global ecosystem? Approaching the study of economics in a more comprehensive way will enable us to think critically about current policy issues.