世界经济历史

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Economics as a Profession
• • • • • • Between 1500 and 1750, the quantity of economic literature increased significantly in Western Europe. From 1650 onwards, economics started to emerge as an intellectual discipline. Adam Smith one of the renowned scholars named “political economy” in his book „wealth of nations‟ (1776). The period from 1776 to 1876 witnessed an increasing professionalization of the discipline of political economy, as its study moved into academia. By 1900, political economy had a new name “Economics” as was being offered as a course of study worldwide. Later, the great depression of 1930 and the increasing involvement of government in economic activity led towards economic education. At the same time, religious persecution by the German Nazis and the threatening war in Europe were bringing a large number of academics from all disciplines to the U.S. These historical events have transferred the concerns of economics from practical policy and businesses to analysis of operation of an economy.
• The Importance of Empirical Verification
Economics as an Art and as a Science
• • • • • • Important distinction in economic thought are between the art of economics, positive economics and normative economics. Positive economics concerns questions such as; how does the economy work? What forces determine the distribution of income? Normative economics is the philosophical branch of economics that integrates economics with ethics. Art of economics concerns questions of policy and asks questions such as; if this is how economics works, then how can one best achieve these goals? The methodology of positive economics tries to separate economic forces from political and social forces. The methodology of art of economics concerns interrelationships among politics, social forces and economic forces.
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Modern economic theory is still trying to come to grips with the interrelationships between economic, social and political factors. It has focused on how market forces operate, concentrating on how market forces allocate scarce resources and on the forces that determine the level and growth of economic output.
The central focus of modern economic thought
• • • • • “Economics” is study of social science. Economics studies the problems that societies face because people desire to consume more goods and services than are available. This creates scarcity (shortage). Wants of a person are generally „unlimited‟ and resources are „limited‟. In order to solve the problems of scarcity, a mechanism is needed for allocating (distributing) limited resources among unlimited alternatives. There are 4 mechanisms to mediate the problem of scarcity:
– – – – Force Tradition (emphasizing on past way of resource allocation) Authority (in the form of government and religion) Market
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Modern economic theory focuses largely on market processes which have replaced religion, tradition and the authority as the primary resource allocating mechanism.
Introduction
Chapter 1
Table of Contents
• • • • • • • • • • • • The central focus of modern economic thought Divisions of modern economic theory Economics as a profession The spread of economic ideas Economics as an art and as a science The importance of empirical verification The rise of logical positivism From logical positivism to falsification From falsification to paradigms From paradigms to research programs From research programs to sociological and rhetorical approaches to method Benefits to be gained from the study of economic thought
Divisions of Modern Economic Theory
• In modern economic thought, the problems associated with scarcity are mainly divided into: – Microeconomics (considers question of allocation and distribution) – Macroeconomics (considers question of stability and growth) The allocation and distribution problem as to what to produce and how to produce and how the real income is divided among the members of society is under „microeconomic theory‟. The major theoretical tool of microeconomic theory is „demand and supply‟, which are applied at the level of the household, company and industry. Main focus of microeconomics is to determine the relative price which is the essential force in allocating resources and distributing income. Macroeconomic theory begins with the analysis of society as a whole and then works downward to the individual. Macroeconomic theory focuses on stability and growth of entire economy; level of income and employment, general level of prices and rate of economic growth.