Economic School of Thought

Economic Schools of Thoughts

Economic Schools of Thoughts are divided into three classes:

1. Schools of Political Economy (Ancient times – 1871 A.D.),
2. Neoclassical Schools (1871 A.D. – today), and
3. Alternative Schools.

 

1. Schools of Political Economy: Schools of Political Economy can be traced back from Ancient times to 1871 A.D.  The Schools of Political Economy can be further divided into two:

 

(a) Pre-Classical Thoughts: The Pre-Classical Thoughts consist of the contributions made by the following:

(i)            The Ancients and Scholastics, including the great Greek philosophers Aristotle and Xenophon, and the Islamic philosopher Ibn Khaldun

(ii)           The Salamanca School initiated by Francisco de Vitoria around 1536

(iii)          The First Economists

(iv)          Sir William Petty and the Mercantilists

(v)            Richard Cantillon, Jacques Turgot and the Enlightenment Economics

(vi)           François Quesnay and the Physiocrats

(vii)          David Hume and Scottish Enlightenment

(viii)         Giliani and the Italian Tradition, and

(ix)            Social philosophers and commentators

 

(b) Classical Thoughts: The classical thoughts consist of the contributions made by the following:

                (i)            Adam Smith

                (ii)           David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill and the Classical Ricardian School

                (iii)          T. Robert Malthus and British Anti-Classical Economists

                (iv)          Jeremy Bentham and the Utilitarians

                (v)           Jean-Baptiste Say and the French Liberal School

                (vi)          Jules Dupuit and the French Engineers

                (vii)         Continental Proto-Marginalists

                (viii)        Karl Marx and the Marxian School

                (ix)          The Bullionist Controversies

                (x)            The Manchester School 

                (xi)           Piero Sraffa and the Neo-Ricardians

                (xii)          The Neo-Marxians

 

2. Neoclassical Schools: Neoclassical Schools of thought starts from 1871 A.D. till today.  Neoclassical Schools is further divided into two:

 

(a) Anglo-American Neoclassicism: consists of the contributions of the following:

                          (i)            W. Stanley Jevons and the Anglo-American Marginalists

                          (ii)           John Bates Clark and the American Apologists

                          (iii)          Alfred Marshall and the Cambridge Neoclassicals

                          (iv)           Lord Robbins and the London School of Economics.

                          (v)             Frank H. Knight and the Chicago School

                          (vi)            Milton Friedman and the Monetarists

                          (vii)           Robert Lucas and the New Classicals

                          (viii)          New Institutionalist Schools

 

(b) Continental Neoclassicism: consists of the contributions made by the following:

                          (i)             Léon Walras and the Lausanne School

                          (ii)            Carl Menger and the Austrian School

                          (iii)           Knut Wicksell and the Swedish School

                          (iv)           Paul Samuelson, John Hicks and the Paretian Revival.

                          (v)            The Vienna Colloquium  

                          (vi)            Tjalling Koopmans and the Cowles Commission

                          (vii)            Kenneth Arrow, Gérard Debreu and the Neo-Walrasian General Equilibrium School

                          (viii)           Robert Aumann and the Edgeworthian Revival

 

3. Alternative Schools: can be divided into two schools of thoughts:

 

(a) Heterodox Traditions: consist of the contributions by the following:

                              (i)            Utopians and Socialists

                            (ii)            The Fabian Socialists

                           (iii)            Gustav Schmoller and the German Historical School

                          (iv)            The English Historical School

                            (v)            The French Historical School

                          (vi)            Thorstein Veblen and the American Institutionalist School.

                         (vii)            Joseph Schumpeter and Evolutionary Economics.

                       (viii)            The Soviet Planning Economists

                          (ix)            The Neo-Marxians/Radical Political Economy

                            (x)            Economics at the New School for Social Research.

 

(b) Keynesians: School of Thought initiated by John Maynard Keynes.  He revolutionized economics with his classic book, ‘The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money’ in 1936.  This is generally regarded as probably the most influential social science treatise of the 20th Century, in that it quickly and permanently changed the way the world looked at the economy and the role of government in society.  No other single book, before or since, has had quite such an impact.  Following are the contributors followed and improved his theory:

             (i)          Joan Robinson and the Cambridge Keynesians

             (ii)         Franco Modigliani, James Tobin and the Neo-Keynesian Synthesis.

             (iii)       Abba Lerner and the American Post Keynesians

             (iv)        Robert Clower, Axel Leijonhufvud and Disequilibrium Keynesianism

             (v)         Joseph E. Stiglitz and the New Keynesians

             (vi)        The Mandarins

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