The course intends to provide an introduction to the development of economics theories, methods and practices since World War II. The first week will brush a general chronology of the transformation of economics in the postwar in the US and Europe. The goal is to provide a sense of which communities economists were involved in and what social, political, international and technical contexts they were evolving in.
Each of the other 5 sessions introduces one aspect of economists’ current theoretical and empirical practices through reading and discussing famous controversies. For each thematic session, students will find on Moodle a package of articles and/or archival material (like correspondence) in which economists argue with each other on a fundamental aspect of economic science during the 1940s to 1980s, and today.
At the beginning of each session, 1 or 2 groups of 4 students will be asked to:
-explain who the economists involved in the debates are, what social, political and economic context they were operating in, and what they were working on
-summarize the arguments (through staging a 10-15 minutes debate to re-enact the controversy)
-provide their opinion as to how the debate was solved, and where 2018 economists stand on these issues
The other students will then be invited to confront their interpretation of the articles presenting the controversy. I will end the session with a wrap-up lecture on how each question was debated since World War II and whether some kind of agreement has been reached in the last decade.
At the beginning of the first introductory session, I will set up groups, and allocate topics. You will then have a month to prepare your group presentation. Please feel free to reach me via email if you have questions.
Each student is asked to read all the material provided in advance for each thematic session. I will put additional material and the lecture slides in moodle at the end of each session.
- Teaching coordinator: Cherrier Béatrice