History of economics
Early Western precursors to Economics are tied to the theological debates of the scholastics during the middle ages. During the early modern period, mercantilists came closer to establishing an economic theory. This diverse school was tied to emergence of nation states in Western Europe and they emphasized keeping a positive balance of payments.
During the enlightenment, the French physiocrats were among the first to consider economics in and of itself. The most important physiocrat was arguably Francois Quesnay (other contemporary French thinkers include Richard Cantillon and Anne Turgot).
The physiocrats were soon overshadowed by Adam Smith's An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, published in 1776. Today it is customary to consider Smith the founder of economic theory - and the classical economics that developed after him to be the beginnings of formal economic study.
The history of the various schools of thought in economics can be loosely categorised as follows:
- Schoolmen, mercantilism, physiocrats, utilitarianism
- Classical economics, developed by David Ricardo, Malthus and John Stuart Mill in the 19th Century.
- Neoclassical economics, which is associated with e.g. Marshall, developed in the late 19th century.
- Marxist economics is usually classified as a variant of neoclassical economics and is based on the writings of Karl Marx.
- The Austrian school.
- German Historical School and institutionalists, mainly American (Thorstein Veblen, Commons, Mitchell and followers; 1899-)
For an overview of macroeconomic schools, see macroeconomics. In brief, this includes mainly,
Contemporary alternative schools outside the mainstream of economic thought include:
- Post Keynesian economics, which regards regards neoclassical economics as fundamentally flawed and develops a radically different analysis.
- Green economists, a loose group of theories associated with feminism, postmodernism, and the ecology movement.
- Modern variants of marxist economics, such as Marxian and Post Marxist economics.
Neoclassical economics is dominant in undergraduate textbooks. The core of contemporary economics rests on the microeconomic theory of neoclassical economics, but on many topics there is little agreement on which schools to develop to usefully explain existing economies. Outside mainstream economics more widely divergent views are common.
Some extremely important tools, such as game theory, econometrics, and linear programming, do not easily fall unambiguously into only one of the schools listed above.
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