ECO198H1

Seminar on Modern Economic Thought

This seminar examines the development of modern economic thought from the marginal revolutionaries (Jevons and Menger) who proclaimed that demand in the form of utility was the basis of price to the supply/demand analysis of Alfred Marshall that established modern microeconomics by 1890. We then look at Irving Fisher’s 1907 foundation of the modern concept of the interest rate and the present value of capital before reviewing J.M. Keynes’ 1936 criticism of neo-classical positions on full employment and interest rates in arguing for government manipulation of interest rates to ensure full employment. We finish with Milton Friedman’s championing of the unregulated market economy through his quantity theory of money critique of Keynes. Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.