Program Overview

Program Description

The program offered is a course in the critical history of economic thought, focusing on the development of economic ideas from classical political economy to recent advancements in behavioral economics.

Objectives

The course aims to provide students with a historical understanding and epistemological categories to critically comprehend and reconsider economic theories. It covers the thought of prominent economists such as Smith, Ricardo, Marx, and extends to modern economists like Kahneman, Tversky, and Thaler.

Contents

The course is structured into nine sections, each covering a significant period or aspect of economic thought:

• The classical theory of value and distribution: Smith, Ricardo, Mill, Marx.
• Marginalism: Menger, Jevons, Walras, Edgeworth, Wicksteed, Marshall.
• The ordinalist revolution and its critics: Fisher, Pareto, Hicks, Allen, Samuelson.
• Theories of money and the economic cycle: Hume, Fisher, Wicksell, Hayek.
• From Keynes to the neoclassical synthesis: Keynes, Hicks, Modigliani, Samuelson.
• From the neoclassical synthesis to DSGE models: Friedman, Lucas, Kydland, Prescott.
• The birth and early development of game theory: von Neumann and Morgenstern, Nash, Schelling, Selten, Harsanyi.
• The axiomatic approach and expected utility theory: Debreu, Friedman, von Neumann, Morgenstern, Savage, Allais, Ellsberg.
• Behavioral economics: Kahneman, Tversky, Thaler.

Pedagogical Approach

The course combines lectures and discussions. At the end of each section, an interactive discussion is held to address open issues, epistemological aspects, or the relevance of the theories to current reality. The epistemological aspects are discussed with a "bottom-up" approach, focusing on specific methodological problems of the economic theories treated.

Examination Method

• A final written exam lasting 90 minutes.
• An optional intermediate test (20% of the final grade) lasting 30 minutes. In the final exam, students must answer three open questions of their choice out of four proposed. In the intermediate test, they must answer one open question out of two proposed.

Bibliographic References

The reference textbook is "From Classical Political Economy to Behavioral Economics" by Ivan Moscati, published by EGEA, Milano, 2012. Italian language slides following the chapters of the textbook are used in lectures and are published on the course website. Original texts by the studied economists may also be discussed in some lessons.

Program Details

• Bachelor of Arts in Economic Sciences, Elective course, 2nd year.
• Semester: Autumn.
• Academic Year: Not specified.
• ECTS: 6.0.
• Language: Italian.

Additional Information

The course is part of the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the Universitŕ della Svizzera italiana.