3001 Philosophy of Economic Sciences and Application of Micro and Macroeconomics
Content
Classic discussion:
- The definition and method of the Philosophy of Economy and Political Economy (Petty-Smith-Ricardo vs John Stuart Mill);
- Objectivity and understanding in the Economy (Max Weber);
- The nature and significance of Economic Science (Lionel Robbins);
- Economy and human activity (Knight Frank);
- Philosophical foundations of the Economy (Karl Marx);
- The limitations of marginal utility (Thorstein Veblen).
Positivist and Popperian views:
- The methodology of positive Economics (Milton Friedman);
- Verification and approximations (Herbert Simon);
- Purposefulness of the positivistic approach (Daniel M. Hausman);
- Popper and Lakatos in economic methodology (D. Wade Hands).
Ideology and Normative Economics:
- Science and Ideology (Joseph Schumpeter);
- Postulates for welfare in economics and interpersonal comparisons of utility (Nicholas Kaldor);
- Philosophical foundations of mainstream normative economics (Daniel M. Hausman and Michael S. McPherson);
- Controversies of “cost-benefit” analysis (Robert Frank);
- Capability and well-being (Amartya Sen).
The branches and schools of Economics and their methodological problems:
- Econometrics as observation: the Lucas critique and the nature of econometric inference (Kevin Hoover);
- The importance of microeconomic foundations of macroeconomics (Kevin Hoover);
- Economics in the laboratory (Vernon Smith);
- Neuroeconomics: use of neuroscience for financial forecasting (Colin F. Camerer);
- The market as a creative process (James M. Buchanan and Viktor J. Vanberg);
- The essence of institutional economics (Geoffrey Hodgson).
New directions in economic methodology:
- Rhetoric of Economics (Deirdre McCloskey);
- Realism (narrow Maki);
- Realism and Economic Methodology (Tony Lawson);
- Feminism and Economics (Julie Nelson);
- Credibility in the Economy: the status of theoretical models in Economics (Robert Sugden);
- The concept and philosophy of the so-called New Economy.
Objectives and competences
Acquire basic knowledge about the philosophy of economy: the categorial apparatus, paradigms and basic principles of functioning of economic systems, including the implementation of economic philosophy in business economics.
Develop competency in order to a PhD student to acquire: the ability of philosophical understanding of economic theory and its applications in business processes, especially from the standpoint of the Knowledge Economy and globalzation proces.