ECON 442 - History of Economic Ideas

(3 units) CO10, CO13

The history of economic ideas and their power to change history, economic and political institutions; the impact on issues of the distribution of income, treatment based on gender, race, physical/mental differences; deregulation/liberalization.

Prerequisite(s): General Education courses (CO1-CO3) completed; at least 3 courses from CO4-CO8 completed; Junior or Senior standing; ECON 102; ECON 103.

Grading Basis: Graded
Units of Lecture: 3
Offered: Every Fall

Student Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
1. demonstrate their knowledge of the power of economic ideas to influence economic structure, political institutions, public policy and history.
2. demonstrate their knowledge of the “family tree” of “worldly philosophers” (Robert L. Heilbroner, The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times, and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers, Touchstone, 1995) and the social, political and historical context of each member.
3. demonstrate their ability to explain the benefits and costs of markets and the benefits and costs of the state efforts to mitigate the costs of markets.
4. demonstrate their knowledge of how modern economics and public policy are defined by the economic and philosophical ideas of Keynes, Fredrick von Hayek and Milton Friedman.
5. demonstrate their ability to differentiate between economics as a technical subject and the political economy of economic ideas; to understand the distinction between positive and normative analysis; and, to articulate the risks to society of the politicalization of social and physical science and how technology influences the application of economic ideas to society.
6. demonstrate their ability to explain how economics came to be known as the “dismal science”, how classical economics and philosophy challenged the status quo regarding race and gender and how an error in historical interpretation can persist and continue to persist for over two centuries.

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