✕
Economics need to change - now more than ever! With Exploring Economics, we strengthen alternative economic approaches and counter mainstream economics with a critical and pluralistic vision of economic education. We also provide background analyses on current economic debates to strengthen a critical economic discourse.
Unfortunately, we are running out of money to continue our work.
With a small contribution you can help Exploring Economics to stay online. Thank you!
We are a registered non-profit organization | Bank account: Netzwerk Plurale Ökonomik e.V., IBAN: DE91 4306 0967 6037 9737 00, SWIFT-BIC: GENODEM1GLS | Imprint
821 results
The economics of worker cooperatives is a branch of economic inquiry with a long and esteemed pedigree, dating at least from the work of John Stuart Mill in the mid-nineteenth century.
The Economics of Worker Cooperatives
This short video by the Khan Academy presents a classic introduction to economic teaching. Starting with the quote by Adam Smith in "The Wealth of Nations" on the invisible hand, it shows how economics deals with the question of the allocation of scarce resources and shortly presents different questions addressed by microeconomics and macroeconomics. It further makes reference to questions of simplification in mathematical models.
Introduction to economics | Supply, demand, and market equilibrium | Microeconomics
How do we get our dinner? And who cooked Adam Smith's dinner? Starting with Smith's answer on the origin of a dinner, Katrine Marçal problematizes and illustrates how unpaid labour was and is still being ignored by economic theory and how the homo economics represents characteristics perceived as male.
How Economics Forgot about Women
Sheila Dow discusses the concept of radical uncertainty and the failure of neoclassical economics to integrate it into its analysis. As to the implications for financial regulation that arise from the presence of radical uncertainty she argues for institutional overhaul, where the banks see themselves as a licensed partner of the central bank and where rules, values, and conventions would be subject to a cultural shift. Also, Sheila Dow advocates for a renewed focus on retail banking.
The Economics of Uncertainty
In the interview, Robert Skidelsky discusses the emergence of political influence of a certain school of economic thought and how the success of an economic theory depends on the power relations in the society. He introduces the historical example of Keynesian economics and its replacement by liberal economic theory and policy in the aftermath of the Great Depression, and transfers this historical case to the dominant paradigm of austerity policies in the Europe as response to rising public debts caused by the Financial Crisis. He contrasts austerity policies with a Keynesian approach. Furthermore, he relates the targets of policy to the underlying power structures, for example when not the reduction of unemployment but the protection of financial capital is politically addressed.
Economics and Political Power during the Crisis
What is innovation, what drives innovation and the process that differentiates firms? What is competition and what kind of dynamics lie behind the differences between firms and their innovative activities? Mariana Mazzucato elaborates on those questions from an evolutionary economics' and Schumpeterian perspective. The slides of her lecture are not visible, hence some visualizations can't be followed.
Economics of Innovation
The Heterodox Economics Directory provides a broad variety of links to heterodox journals, books, conferences, study programs, teaching materials and blogs. Some categories are subdivided by schools of thoughts - it's a valuable source for heterodox material on the internet.
Heterodox Economics Directory
The Lecturer Prof. Francesco Lissoni presents basic concepts of the Economics of Innovation. Firstly, he distinguishes between invention, innovation and diffusion and relates innovation to economic growth. Subsequently, he elucidates learning and network effects.
Economics of Innovation 1/2
Steve Horwitz, professor of economics at St. Lawrence University, gives a concise account of Austrian approach and talks about how it relates to the various current public policy issues.
The Austrian school of economics
This blogpost discusses the bias the Economics discipline has towards Africa. It points out how important conferences on issues regarding Africa take place in Western countries at the expense of those based in Africa.
Economics has an Africa Problem
Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapely won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for their work on market design back in 2012, but it is a field that is still underrepresented in economics education. All markets have rules, and how these rules are set influence how the market functions.
The economics of legalising cannabis
This self-paced free course by Perry Merhling guides you to his "Money View" approach that integrates the fields of economics and finance. The course can easily be understood by people interested people without technical economic knowledge or training as it is primarily a tool for analysis.
Economics of Money and Banking
This volume focuses on the importance of the history of economic thought as an intellectual discipline. It counters the arguments of some contemporary economists who describe it as studying the mistakes of the past. However, all the great economists - Smith, Ricardo, Marx, Marshall, Keynes and even Milton Friedman - have drawn on the history of economics to find an appropriate pedigree for their own theoretical innovations.
The Historiography of Economics
John Harvey's accessible book provides a non-technical yet rigorous introduction to various schools of thought in economics. Premised on the idea that economic thinking has been stunted by the almost complete rejection of anything outside the mainstream, the author hopes that this volume will open readers' minds and lead them in new and productive directions.
Contending Perspectives in Economics
In reviewing this book in The Economic Journal, S.G. Checkland said that it should be read as a vigorous attempt to relate economics to general thinking and as a challenge to those who are practitioners or elaborators of narrowly prescribed techniques.
Evolutionary Economics
This book discloses the economic foundations of European fiscal and monetary policies by introducing readers to an array of alternative approaches in economics. It presents various heterodox theories put forward by classical economists, Marx, Sraffa and Keynes, as a coherent challenge to neoclassical theory.
Heterodox Challenges in Economics
This Micro-Masters program on Circular Economy looks at the concept and its application from different angles, covering a very wide variety of topics (From Fossil Fuels to Biomass: A Chemistry Perspective; Circular Economy: An Interdisciplinary Approach; Economics and Policies in a Biobased Economy).
It offers a well-rounded, multidisciplinary perspective, using sciences and humanities together for a deeper understanding of the topic. A great start for newbies with Circular Economy!
The access to the course is for free, but you can also apply for full-time on-campus graduate-level programs, be it Wageninged or other universities.
Economics and Policies for a Circular Bio-Economy
Environmental catastrophe looms large over politics: from the young person’s climate march to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal, increasing amounts of political space are devoted to the issue. Central to this debate is the question of whether economic growth inevitably leads to environmental issues such as depleted finite resources and increased waste, disruption of natural cycles and ecosystems, and of course climate change. Growth is the focal point of the de-growth and zero-growth movements who charge that despite efficiency gains, increased GDP always results in increased use of energy and emissions. On the other side of the debate, advocates of continued growth (largely mainstream economists) believe that technological progress and policies can ‘decouple’ growth from emissions.
To Grow or Not to Grow?
In 18th century Europe figures such as Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Friedrich List and Jean Baptiste Colbert developed theories regarding international trade, which either embraced free trade seeing it as a positive sum game or recommended more cautious and strategic approaches to trade seeing it as a potential danger and a rivalry and often as a zero-sum game. What about today?
Free trade in economic theories
The usual background and distinctions between complexity and neoclassical economics are presented Neoclassical economics deals with perfectly rational representative agents this creates states of equilibrium On the other hand complexity economics relaxes these assumptions to deal with responsive agents in an uncertain dynamic environment this creates states of disequilibrium More …
Foundations of complexity economics
The premise of this workshop is that we, as knowledge producers - especially within westernized universities (Grosfoguel, 2013), are significantly implicated in neoliberal imaginaries that are often in service of hierarchical, binary, competitive and linear narratives of growth as civilizational progress.
Decolonizing Economics
This course focus on the behaviour of individuals from an pluralist economic and an interdisciplinary bevavioural science apprach.
Actors, Behaviours and Decision Processes
Challenging the Mainstream in the Twentieth Century Economics is a contested academic discipline between neoclassical economics and a collection of alternative approaches such as Marxism radical economics Institutional economics Post Keynesian economics and others that can collectively be called heterodox economics Because of the dominance of neoclassical economics the existence …
A History of Heterodox Economics
What made the false assumption that saving the economy at all cost during a pandemic so popular? This paper discusses different pathways through the COVID-19 pandemic at national and international level, and their consequences on the health of citizens and their economies.
How not to save the economy? The interplay of economics and health during the COVID-19 pandemic
This is a great book Against the background of the dogmatism of much of modern economics Fullbrook has produced an innovative wide ranging argument for narrative pluralism The timely book is beautifully written accessible to all provocative extraordinarily insightful and extremely compelling Tony Lawson Cambridge University UK This fascinating and …
Narrative Fixation in Economics
This paper provides a logical framework for complexity economics Complexity economics builds from the proposition that the economy is not necessarily in equilibrium economic agents firms consumers investors constantly change their actions and strategies in response to the outcome they mutually create This further changes the outcome which requires them …
Complexity Economics : A Different Framework for Economic Thought
Is capitalism the context where gender inequalities are reproduced, or is capitalism something more than a context? What are the differences among women and how can we place them theoretically and politically. Reproductive work, is it a women’s work? These questions are disscused in a three-session workshop.
Feminist Economics
In this overview paper, Laura Porak reviews the history of industrial policy in the European Union before the background of a Cultural Political Economy approach.
History of Industrial Policy in the EU
Recent events such as the Black Lives Matter protests the the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis US and the toppling of the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol UK have exposed existing racism colonialism and sexism in our society and in Economics While calls to improve diversity in Economics …
Decolonising Economics in Practice
The 2007-2008 financial crisis exposed the shortcomings of mainstream economic theory with economists unprepared to deal with it. In the face of this, a major rethinking of economics seems necessary and in presenting alternative approaches to economic theory, this book contributes to the rebuilding of the discipline.
Alternative Approaches to Economic Theory
Usually, Critical Theory and Economics are, for better or worse, no longer seen to be in a continuum. This article by Lukas Meisner serves as an introduction to Critical Theory for all (heterodox) economists, who want to understand and explain what they can, otherwise, just state and describe.
Critical Theory for Heterodox Economists: Questioning the Premises of Supply and Demand
Caring activities are one central element of feminist economists' analysis – also since in particular unremunerated work is a blind spot in mainstream economics and most other economic paradigms. Those focus on the market sphere: activities are considered as productive and as real labour if they are remunerated and market-intermediated. Goods and services are considered as labour if they create a value which can be traded on the market. Feminist Economics remarks that this perspective creates certain dichotomies and consequent devaluations: unproductive – productive; private – public; unpaid – remunerated OR paid less – well paid; female – male; soft work – hard work; caring – rationality.
Reproductive Labour and Care
We use cookies on our website. Click on Accept to help us to make Exploring Economics constantly better!