Department of
Economics
1.1. Axiomatic structure of the Neo-classical Economics – individualism, atomism, hedonism and utilitarianism, profit motive, full knowledge, rational behaviour, certainty, representativism, arithmomorphism, marginalism, equilibrium, scarcity of resources and allocative optimization. Mathematics and physics as role models of economics.
1.2. The theory of consumer’s behaviour based on hedonism, rationality, continuity, convexity and transitivity of (given and exogenously determined) utility or preference function and its optimization.
1.3. The theory of production based on production functions: allocative efficiency, substitutability. Development of production functions from von Theunen to Ryuzo Sato.
1.4. Market Equilibrium theory – partial equilibrium vs. general equilibrium; theory of general equilibrium from Walras to Arrow and Debreu.
2.1. The micro-economic base of Macro-economics; the Say-Walras Law; aggregation theory; aggregate consumption and production functions; Aggregate savings and investment functions.
2.2. The theories of growth – given (exogenous) technology and conventional inputs, labour, physical capital and human capital, the concept of technological neutrality, steady state capital-output ratio, optimal vs. attainable paths, von-Neumann model and path, clay and putty models, reswitching, the embodied and exogenous technical change. A critique of aggregate growth theories.
2.3. The theories of Business Cycles – over-investment, under-consumption, multiplier- accelerator, endogenous and shock-dependent theories.
2.4. The Input-Output framework, Leontief production function, equilibrium of the productive economy, price formation, stability and growth in the input-output framework. Computable equilibrium.
Unit-III. The
Economics of Knowledge, Transaction Costs and Bounded Rationality
3.1. Paradoxes in the neo-classical theory of consumer's behaviour, intransitive preference structure, multi-commodity consumption baskets, issues of quality and complementarity, experimental findings; the development of experimental economics; major findings.
3.2.Imperfect knowledge, multiple mutually inconsistent objectives/goals, partial knowledge of objective functions to optimize, the concept of bounded rationality; satisficing behaviour.
3.3.The theory of transaction costs, decision-making with imperfect knowledge, the principal agent problem, epistemological aspects of emergence of uncertainty, decision-making under risk and uncertainty, emergence of shock and surprise, enterprise, risk and uncertainty.
3.4. Growth of knowledge, endogeneity of technological advancement, the knowledge-based economy, Kuhn’s theory of growth of scientific knowledge, technology and learning in new growth theory, intellectual property right and emergence of oligopoly.
Unit-IV.
Neo-Institutionalist, Evolutionary and Anti-equilibrium Economics
4.1.Equilibrium theory vs. adaptation and evolution theory of large system, anti-equilibrium approach to economics (Kornai), interaction and emergence, learning and adaptive behaviour, complexity and adaptation.
4.2. An introduction to the basic tenets of the old institutional economics – its criticism as being devoid of analytical tools, Ronald Coase - development of new institutional economics, basic tenets – methodological issues in (new) institutional economics; Romar (1986), Lucas (1988) and North (1990) on new models of growth.
4.3. Evolutionary economics – biological sciences as role model, the dialectics of change, relationship between neo-institutionalism and evolutionary economics, methodology of analysis, the system-theoretic view, models in evolutionary economics, development of neuro-economics, the neural basis of decision-making.
4.4. The neo-classical top-down approach vs. bottom-up approach to building economics from interaction among the agents, agent-based (computational) economics, economy as a complex adaptive system, micro-foundations of macro-economics, evolution of institutions.
Reading Materials
1. Blaug, Marc (1978) Economic Theory in Retrospect, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge/New York.
2. Blaug, Marc (1985) Great Economists Since Keynes: An Introduction to the Lives and Works of 100 Modern Economists. Harvester Press, Brighton/ Barnes & Noble, New York.
3. Bowles, Samuel (2004) Microeconomics: Behaviour, Institutions and Evolution, [Indian Edition] Oxford Univ. Press, Delhi.
5. Drobak, J.N. and Nye, JVC (Eds) (1997) Frontiers of the New Institutional Economics Academic Press, San Diego/London.
7. Giocoli, Nicola (2003) Modeling Rational Agents: From Interwar Economics to Early Modern Game Theory, Edward Elgar
8. Ménard, Claude; Shirley, Mary M. (Eds.) (2005) Handbook of New
Institutional Economics. Springer
Verlag, Berlin/New York.
9.
Tesfatsion,
L & Judd, KL (2006) Handbook of Computational Economics, 2 vols Elsevier.
10. Vromen, J. J. (1995) Economic Evolution: An Enquiry into the Foundations of New Institutional Economics. Routledge, London/New York.
Additional Reading Materials (a)
·
Brunn, C (????) Agent-Based Computational Economics - An
Introduction.
·
Coase, R. (1998) The New Institutional Economics, The American Economic
Review, Vol. 88(2), pp. 72-74.
·
Kaufman, Bruce E. (2007) The
Non-existence of the Labor Demand/Supply Diagram, and Other Theorems of
Institutional Economics
·
Lee, F.S. and Keen , S (2004) "The Incoherent Emperor: A Heterodox
Critique of Neoclassical Microeconomic Theory", Review of Social Economy,
LXII(2), 169-199.
·
Mallard, G (2003) Bridging Culture and Rationality: Four Modes of
Explanation in Economic Sociology.
·
Richter, R (2003) The New Institutional Economics - Its Start, Its
Meaning, Its Prospects. Discussion
Paper, PaperNIEHist2.doc
11/24/03
·
Toboso, F (2001) Institutional individualism and institutional change:
The search of middle way mode of explanation, Cambridge J. of Economics, Vol.
25(6) pp. 714-783.
Additional Reading Materials (b)
·
Interview with Ronald Coase
·
Chaos theory and institutional economics: Metaphor or model? by van
Staveren, Irene
·
Expanding the Dialogue between Institutional Economics and Contemporary
Evolutionary Economics: Veblen's Methodology as a Framework by Brette, Olivier
·
Sent, Esther-Mirjam (???? ) Pluralisms in Economics
·
Alessandro Innocenti (????) Paradoxes versus formalism in economics.
Evidence from the early years of game theory and experimental economics.
·
Business Cycle Theories
·
Schools of Thought in Economics
·
Garrison, RW ( ????) Hayekian Trade Cycle Theory: A Reappraisal
·
Löwe’s and Hayek’s infuence on Harrod’s trade cycle theory by Daniele
Besomi
·
Galor, Oded (2005) "From Stagnation to Growth: Unified Growth
Theory"
·
New Growth Theory, Technology and Learning
·
Kuhn’s theory of the growth of scientific knowledge, Part I
·
The
Concept of Equilibrium in Old Institutional Economics: J. M.Clark, T.B.Veblen
and J.R.Commons. by Katia Caldari
·
Original Institutional Economics: A Theory for the 21st Century? By
Jairo J. Parada
·
Giocoli, Nicola (????) "Blanqui Lecture - In the Sign of the
Axiomatic Method: Mathematics as the Role Model for Neoclassical
Economics"
·
Who's
afraid of new institutional economics' ideas of institutional change? Michel
Zouboulakis
All
the papers listed above and many more are available for free download from http://www.webng.com/economics