Not available in 2015/16
EH429 Half Unit
History of Economics: Ideas, Policy and Performativity
This information is for the 2015/16 session.
Teacher responsible
Prof Mary Morgan SAR 609
Availability
This course is available on the MA Global Studies: A European Perspective, MPhil/PhD in Accounting, MSc in Economic History, MSc in Economic History (Research), MSc in Economics and Philosophy, MSc in Global History, MSc in International and World History (LSE & Columbia) and MSc in Philosophy of the Social Sciences. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.
Students can take this course independently of EH428.
Course content
The course aim is to understand how economics has been used to change the world. The course will bring to together the long tradition of analysis of economics as a policy science with more recent ideas about the performativity of economics. It will draw on the literatures of economic history, history of economics and sociology of accounting and finance to explore the aims and methods used in economics to influence the economy. The focus of study will be on particular episodes from 20th century history in which economics features as a technical art (e.g. the transition from colonial to independent economies; the Soviet and Cuban revolutions; and the reconstruction of depressed and damaged economies).
Teaching
20 hours of seminars in the LT.
20 hours over LT, mainly 2hour seminars with an occasional lecture within that time slot. (Those students without previous study in the history of economics may wish also attend the lectures for EC311.
Formative coursework
Students will be expected to produce two pieces of written work during the term.
Indicative reading
Reading lists will be given out at the beginning of the course. Henry Spiegel's The Growth of Economic Thought (various editions, Duke University Press) provides a general background text.
Assessment
Essay (100%, 3000 words) in the ST.
Key facts
Department: Economic History
Total students 2014/15: 33
Average class size 2014/15: 17
Controlled access 2014/15: Yes
Value: Half Unit
Personal development skills
- Self-management
- Team working
- Problem solving
- Application of information skills
- Communication
- Application of numeracy skills
- Specialist skills