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This course will introduce key concepts, theories and methods from socioeconomics. The first part of the course, will deal with the main economic actors and how their interactions are governed. Markets are seen as sets of social institutions. Institutions shape how consumers, firms and other economic actors behave. While it is difficult to understand how novelty emerges, we can study the conditions that are conducive to innovation. We will review how economic performance, social progress and human wellbeing are measured and what progress has been made. In the second part of the course, we will study a specific macroeconomic model that accounts for biophysical boundaries and inequality.
2020
Level: advanced
Foundations in Socioeconomics
Representing everyone An Analysis of the Representation of Migrant Women by official Labour Organizations in Germany Author Tess Herrmann Review Deborah Sielert This is an essay of the writing workshop Gender and the Economy Perspektives of Feminist Economics published on 17 May 2017 updated on 16 August 2017 Why we …
2017
Level: beginner
Representing everyone – Migrant Women's Representation by Labour Organizations in Germany
This course introduces students to the relevance of gender relations in economics as a discipline and in economic processes and outcomes. The course covers three main components of gender in economics and the economy: (1) the gendered nature of the construction and reproduction of economic theory and thought; (2) the relevance and role of gender in economic decision-making; and (3) differences in economic outcomes based on gender. We will touch on the relevance of gender and gender relations in at least each of the following topics: economic theory; the history of economic thought; human capital accumulation; labor market discrimination; macroeconomic policy, including gender budgeting; household economics; basic econometrics; economic history; and economic crises.
2019
Level: beginner
Feminist Economics
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.
2024
Level: beginner
Critical Theory for Heterodox Economists: Questioning the Premises of Supply and Demand
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 …
2011
Level: advanced
A History of Heterodox Economics
"Despite the rediscovery of the inequality topic by economists as well as other social scientists in recent times, relatively little is known about how economic inequality is mediated to the wider public of ordinary citizens and workers. That is precisely where this book steps in: It draws on a cross-national empirical study to examine how mainstream news media discuss, respond to, and engage with such important and politically sensitive issues and trends.
2020
Level: advanced
Economic Inequality and News Media
An essay of the writing workshop on Nigeria’s Readiness for and the Effect of the Fourth Industrial Revolution
2020
Level: advanced
The Role of Women in the Fourth Industrial Revolution
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?
2016
Level: beginner
Free trade in economic theories
For a long time, price controls were considered taboo, as neoliberal economic theory assumes that prices are supposedly formed freely by supply and demand. But especially in times of crisis, the state must intervene and cap prices to protect wage earners from excessive burdens. However, the how matters.
2025
Level: beginner
Price Controls Against Inflation
In this Blog Post on developmenteconomics org Christina C Laskaridis PhD candidate in Economics at SOAS elaborates on the economic fallout of the corona pandemic and especially its impact on the Global South The author focuses in particular on the issue of debt moratoria and debt restructuring and the measures …
2020
Level: beginner
Debt Moratoria in the Global South in the Age of Coronavirus
In this TED Talk, the behavioral economist Dan Ariely explain how changing our environment could change our behavior and how this connects with how we think about economics, through simple but powerful examples.
2019
Level: beginner
How to change your behavior for the better
While many are unsatisfied with capitalism and critique it in highly sophisticated ways, there are few concrete proposals for a socialist mode of production that could replace the capitalist one. Daniel E. Saros has developed such a proposal in his book "Information Technology and Socialist Construction – The End of Capital and the Transition to Socialism" which we discuss at length over the course of two episodes.
2020
Level: advanced
Daniel E. Saros on Digital Socialism and the Abolition of Capital
In this book the author develops a new approach to uncertainty in economics, which calls for a fundamental change in the methodology of economics. It provides a comprehensive overview and critical appraisal of the economic theory of uncertainty and shows that uncertainty was originally conceptualized both as an epistemic and an ontological problem.
2017
Level: advanced
Uncertainty in Economics
In this podcast 'How Economic Theory and Policy Reinforce Racism' William Spriggs, the AFL-CIO’s chief economist, discusses the inadequacies of the pandemic economic rescue package and the influence of mainstream economic theory. He further explores how mainstream economic theory continues to fail everyone, especially Black communities, by disregarding history.
2020
Level: beginner
How Economic Theory and Policy Reinforce Racism
A historical glimpse of how economists of the 19th century debated the usefulness of mathematics to economics
2020
Level: beginner
Mathematical Economics in the 19th Century
Die Welt verändern, ohne die Macht zu übernehmen – dieser Buchtitel aus dem Jahr 2002 steht emblematisch für ein Verhältnis zur Macht, das in Teilen der Linken lange Zeit vorherrschend war. Der Autor des Buches, John Holloway, war selbst Teil der Weltsozialforen-Bewegung und stellte sich entschieden gegen herkömmliche Vorstellungen linker Gegenmacht, etwa im Sinne des Aufbaus einer linken Massenpartei. Aus derselben Zeit stammt auch das Konzept der «Multitude» aus der Feder von Michael Hardt und Antonio Negri. Es richtete sich gegen den identitären Begriff eines «Volkes», und ebenso gegen eine politische Bezugnahme auf die «Arbeiter*innenklasse». Diesen politischen Subjekten wurde eine Vielfalt widerständiger, global verteilter Praktiken und Gruppierungen entgegengestellt, die sich jedoch nicht vereinheitlichen ließen. Das Verhältnis dieser Multitude zur Erringung von Macht wurde offengelassen.
Level: beginner
Die Macht übernehmen und die Welt verändern?
Firms are the primary places where economic activity takes place in modern capitalist economies: they are where most stuff is produced; where many of us spend 40 hours a week; and where big decisions are made about how to allocate resources. Establishing how they work is hugely important because it helps us to understand patterns of production and consumption, including how firms will react to changes in economic conditions and policy. And a well-established literature – led by post-Keynesians and institutionalists – holds that the best way to determine how firms work is to…wait for it...ask firms how they work. This a clearly sensible proposition that is contested in economics for some reason, but we’ll ignore the controversy here and just explore the theory that springs from this approach.
2020
Level: beginner
The ‘How Firms Work’ Approach to How Firms Work
In order to address discrimination, we must understand and address its fundamental basis of systemic oppression. Stratification economics goes beyond myopic mainstream conceptualisations of discrimination and recognises the historical, institutional, and structural factors that create and maintain socioeconomic disparities and hierarchies. To critically approach the economics of discrimination, this workshop will focus on stratification economics, a systematic and empirically grounded approach to addressing intergroup inequality (Darity, 2005). Focusing on racial discrimination, we will discuss the core elements of stratification economics, critically evaluate its relevance, and apply these understandings to construct case studies and solutions for change. In our discussions, we will consider an array of topics, including intersecting oppressions, reparative justice, and the role of knowledge production in overcoming injustice and creating a better world.
2022
Level: beginner
Economics of Discrimination
The goal of this brief report is to put in one place some of the works that have come out of the movement to reform economics education. True to their training, the student movement for pluralism in economics education has been marked by an impressive amount of research: both on economics education itself and on more topical subjects within economics.
2019
Level: beginner
Mapping Pluralist Research - An overview of research within the student movement for pluralism in economics
First published in 1983. A collection of papers directed at those outside the field of Economics, to open up discussions around the scientific worth of Economics.
2020
Level: advanced
Why Economics is not yet a Science
This article reviews insights of existing literature on global care chains. A specific focus is laid on the impact that the refugee crisis has on global care chains and in turn how the crisis impacts the de-skilling of the women in the migrant workforce.
2017
Level: beginner
Global care chains, refugee crisis, and deskilling of workers
This article explores the production function, the prevailing view of capital that underpins it, and the main alternative perspective. By exploring these perspectives, the authors aim to provide students with a foundational understanding of the controversies surrounding the treatment of capital in production, a topic expressly excluded from mainstream textbooks.
2024
Level: beginner
Why We Should Think Twice About Production Functions
In this blog article, Dirk Brockmann illustrates how strong heterogeneities, cluster-like structures and high variability in node connectivities can naturally emerge in growing networks.
2019
Level: expert
Complexity Explorables
The chi-square distribution is used to test a hypothesis. Therefore, expected values are related to observed values using a chi-square distribution. Then using p-value tables the hypothesis is tested at a 5% significance level.
2010
Level: beginner
Pearson's chi square test (goodness of fit) | Probability and Statistics | Khan Academy
In this article, the Harvard Business Review recognizes the arguments of the Degrowth vision and gives examples of businesses that have thrived following its precepts. The authors suggest three strategies that firms should put into action to be at the forefront of this movement. The article also gives a brief overview of what the degrowth is about and its main criticisms.
2020
Level: beginner
Why "De-Growth" Shouldn't Scare Businesses
Happy International Women s Day This International Women s Day 2018 is an opportune moment to highlight prominent scholars of Feminist Economics As a subdiscipline of economics Feminist Economics analyzes the interrelationship between gender and the economy often critiquing inequities and injustices perpetuated by mainstream paradigms Work of this nature …
Level: beginner
Happy International Women’s Day!
The text presents a short perspective of International Political Economy, which "have often sought to complement discussions of governance with a healthy dose of critique", on resistance against e.g. economic inequality or economic and political power.
2017
Level: beginner
Resistance
Tom Palley provides a very clear and insightful description of the post-Keynesian school of economics by tracing back its connections to the different historical schools of thought.
2015
Level: beginner
Post-Keynesian Economics through the Lens of History of Thought - Introductory lectures on heterodox economics
Exploring Economics, an open-source e-learning platform, giving you the opportunity to discover & study a variety of economic theories, topics, and methods.
2020
Level: beginner
Yes, Money is Endogenous. Who Cares?
As the Covid-19 fueled economic downturn begins to intensify this winter, an extended study of the Italian cooperative sector’s historical resilience in times of crisis can serve as a learning experience for other countries seeking to create policies that foster more stable economies, with job security, care for marginalized communities and adequate counter-cyclical policies. Particularly, the Italian cooperative sector’s contributions to three aspects should be noted in closing. Firstly, the innovative phenomenon of cooperative enterprises has contributed to social inclusion of immigrant communities, the activation of youth, the unemployed and people with disabilities, a true compensation for both a market and state failure. Secondly, they have contributed to a reduction in income and wealth inequalities at a time when the issue of inequality is of global significance. Thirdly, the Italian cooperative movement has helped local communities revitalize in the face of demographic shifts and rendered them more resilient to the ravages of globalization. Each of these in their own right is a remarkable achievement.
2020
Level: beginner
How to strengthen the social economy
The world has changed dramatically in recent years and so has the field of economics, but many introductory economics textbooks have remained stuck in the past. This book provides a new beginning for the study of macroeconomics, fundamentally international in its approach and emphasizing current debates and research trends.
2014
Level: advanced
Macroeconomics
The Invisible Hand offers a radical departure from the conventional wisdom of economists and economic historians, by showing that "factor markets" and the economies dominated by them - the market economies - are not modern, but have existed at various times in the past.
2016
Level: advanced
The Invisible Hand?

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