http://www.econ.duke.edu/~erw/250s/econ250syl.html
COURSE OUTLINE
ECONOMICS 25OS: "MODERN ECONOMIC THOUGHT"
Spring 1996
Professor E. Roy Weintraub
Department of Economics, Duke University, Durham NC
email: erw@econ.duke.edu

"The realization that phlogiston and Ptolomy, ether and alchemy were actually based on quite a lot of correct observations, even though they could not be exhaustively accounted for by observation, and that neither Relativity nor Quanta--let alone quarks and quasars--could be exhaustively reduced to observation statements, brought a change. It began to dawn on philosophers that the heart of the problem was not: What is appearance and what is reality? Instead, it became: How is one to see the succession of alternative theories and how can one distinguish between them? At the moment in which the debate about appearance and reality was replaced by a debate about alternative theories, the history of science became part of science." Peter Munz, 1985. Our Knowledge of the Growth of Knowledge: Popper or Willgenstein? London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, p. 24.

This seminar is concerned with the development of modern economics, and generally considers those developments from the mid­1930s to the present time. This semester the course will particularly emphasize the transitions that occurred in economic theory in the 1930s and 1940s.

The seminar will meet twice a week. There will be material to be read each week. Some of this material is to be found in The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, in four large oversize volumes, edited by John Eatwell, Murray Milgate, and Peter Newman. Duke owns three publically accessible copies of this set of books, one each in the Fuqua and Law School Libraries, and one set in Perkins in the Reference Department. Please use these books at the table in Perkins where the books are shelved, and return them to their places immediately so that others may use them. The other reading material is to be found in the Perkins Reserve Room, on three hour closed reserve. Please note that there is another excellent source for readings available on the World Wide Web: Professor Roderick Hay is making available non­copyrighted materials in the history of economics at Readings on the Web.

The course will be a seminar in fact: I shall give an overview/mini­lecture for the first meeting each week; in the second, two students will lead the discussion of the assigned material. That is, two weeks ahead I shall assign two students to prepare a two page (typed single spaced) seminar report on specific topics I want the seminar to discuss. The papers will be distributed electronically by the morning of the seminar day, to allow everyone to read them by afternoon. In class I shall randomly assign two students to lead the discussion of the reports after the authors have finished their presentations. All students will keep a journal which will track reading done, and questions which are raised by the readings which seem to merit class discussion. Additionally, all students will prepare a moderately sized "Introduction" to the set of seminar reports. This paper, of roughly 10 pages, will be due at the time of the scheduled (official) final exam, but will be in lieu of that exam. Grades will be based 1/4 on the journal, 1/4 on the seminar reports, 1/4 on the final paper, and 1/4 on class participation, which includes attendance. (I shall take cognizance, in my grading, of the different background preparations of graduate and undergraduate students.)

Topics which I shall discuss, and common readings to be done by all seminar participants, include (entries in The New Palgrave are in parentheses):

Week 1: Introduction

Reading: Chap 16, "A Methodological Postscript" in Mark Blaug, Economic Theory in Retrospect (3rd ed.); Donald Walker, "Ten Major Problems in the Study of the History of Economic Thought", Hist. of Econ. Soc. Bull. 10, 2, Fall 1988; E. R. Weintraub, Chaps. 1, 10 in Stabilizing Dynamics, 1991; Additional Reading can be found in the collection of papers put together by Mark Blaug, The Historiography of Economics (1991); (rhetoric)


Weeks 2 and 3: The Neoclassical Revolution and the Mirowski Thesis

Reading: Chap 2, "Cambridge Civilisation", in Robert Skidelsky, John Maynard Keynes, 1986; Chap 8, "The Marginal Revolution" in Mark Blaug; Chap 4, "Leon Walras" in Bruna Ingrao and Giorgio Israel, The Invisible Hand, 1990; Chaps 1, 5 in Philip Mirowski, More Heat Than Light, 1989; (Walras, Marshall, Jevons, Edgeworth, Carl Menger, Russell, neoclassical, marginalist)


Weeks 4 and 5: To the 1930s

Reading: Chap 5, "Vilfredo Pareto" in Ingrao and Israel; Chap 9, "Economic Orthodoxies", in Skidelsky; Chap 12, "The Austrian Theory of the Rate of Interest" in Blaug; (Cassel, Volterra Pareto, Hayek, Irving Fisher)


Weeks 6, 7, 8 : Keynes and the UK traditions

Reading: Don Patinkin and J. Clark Leith (eds.) Keynes, Cambridge, and the General Theory, 1978; J. M. Keynes, Collected Works, Vol. 13 (The General Theory and After, Part 1, Preparation; (D.H. Robertson, Keynes, Keynes' General Theory, Joan Robinson, Harrod, Hawtry)


Weeks 9, 10: General Equilibrium Analysis

Reading: E. R. Weintraub, Chaps 6, 7, 8 in General Equilibrium Analysis: Studies in Appraisal, 1985; Ingrao and Israel, Chap 7; (Karl Menger, Hilbert, Wald, von Neumann, activity analysis, Brouwer's Fixed Point Theorem, Godel, Arrow­Debreu Model, etc.)


Weeks 11, 12: Dynamics and Stability

Reading: E. R. Weintraub, Chaps 2, 3, 4 in Stabilizing Dynamics; Ingrao and Israel, Chap 8; (Frisch, G.D.Birkhoff, Tinbergen, Poincare, Lefschetz, Llapunov Theory, Samuelson, stability, dynamics, etc.)


Weeks 13, 14: Game Theory and the Neoclassical Synthesis

Reading: P. Mirowski, "What Were von Neumann and Morgenstern Really Up To?" and R. Leonard, "Creating a Context For Game Theory" in Weintraub's Toward a History of Game Theory; P. Mirowski, "When Games Grow Deadly Serious" in Goodwin's Economics and National Security; R. Leonard "From Parlor Games to Social Science" in JEL, 33, June 1995, pp.730­76 1. (neoclassical synthesis, real balance effect, Borel, game theory, Morgenstern)

Last Revised January 11, 1996