What to Read to Gain Perspective on Economics?
A question of special interest to me right now because the departmental powers-that-be have decided to ask me to go back onto the 700-person Econ 1 Wheeler teaching line next spring…
: A colleague (middle grade civil servant) has sent this request to Mrs Y:
I was wondering if we could do a mentor session on the underpinning economic philosophies (lenses)–I have always wondered what the main underlying philosophies are and the risks associated with viewing economics through particular lenses like Neo-classical or Neo-Keynesian. I know you are quite good at the economics stuff, what do you think?
And so, like Own Glydwr, LizardBreath summons me from the vasty deep!:
If you had a moment to waste at Unfogged…. I figure that if anyone had useful suggestions, it’d be you. And given that you’re demonstrably reading the comments, I also figured that it wasn’t too much of an imposition to ask.
First, I am not reading all the comments.
In fact, I do not understand how anyone can read all the Unfogged comments and have a life–unless, of course, they are a post-human anthology intelligence.
Robert Heilbroner’s The Worldly Philosophers is, I think, still the best place to start. The next two things I have people read are Partha Dasgupta, Economics: A Very Short Introduction; Robert Allen, Global Economic History: A Very Short Introduction; and Milton and Rose Director Friedman, Free to Choose. Then I make people read Jonathan Schlefer, The Assumptions Economists Make; and Tom Slee, _Nobody Makes You Shop at Wal-Mart.
There will be an exam.
https://readfold.com/read/delong/what-to-read-to-gain-perspective-on-economics-u9jYa6DX