History of Economic thought Exam 2

  • Be able to identify the significant public policy issues in England in the early 19th century


  • be able to explain per text and class discussions; how did the economic thinkers of the time confronted these issues

  • Be able to identify and explain the background, history and effectiveness of the Poor

Laws and Factory Acts 

  • Chadwick – background, major influences, primary contributions, views on

mechanization and business cycles with respect to working poor; relevance to today’s

social and economic issues

  • State of sanitation in England during the 19th century; Great Stink; Chadwick’s

perspective about the public interest and role of government in sanitation reform, how he

considered it to be a “public good” and a natural monopoly

  • Chadwick’s role in changing policing and law enforcement in England; issues was he

seeking to address with those changes; be able to explain the economic incentive

underpinning the “preventative principle”

  • JS Mill’s background, main principles and concerns for public policy; his two main types

of government intervention – be able to identify

  • Mill’s perspectives on income vs wealth taxes, be able to provide his argument about

each

  • Romanticism – what was it, its primary perspectives; comparison to Enlightenment

thinking and rationalism. Be able to explain why was this movement relevant to the

history of economic thought

  • Who were the utopian socialists? Saint-Simon bio and proposal for social organization

  • Simonde de Sismondi; be able to identify his proposal for the role of government in the

economy?

  • Robert Owen - be able to explain how his bio and early life experience impacted his

theories; be able to explain his projects and how they worked out

  • Marx bio, family circumstances, formal education, profession, cities did he lived in and

why he moved around

  • Philosopher was most influential for Marx – Hegel – be able to explain what the dialectic

Is


  • Communist Manifesto - when published; major points

  • Das Kapital – when published; major points

  • Marx’s theory of excess value

  • Marx’s prediction for advanced capitalistic economies – be able to explain his argument

  • Marx, “class struggle” and revolution – be able to explain


  • Cournot – background, primary contribution to economic thinking, role of marginals

  • Cournot’s monopoly model, be able to draw and explain Figure 13.1 in the text

  • Cournot duopoly model, reaction curves, be able to draw and explain Figure 13.2 in the

Text pg. 315

  • Dupuit – biography, profession and impact of his training on his economic ideas; be able

to identify and explain three characteristics that shaped his economic analysis

  • Dupuit’s three components of total utility in a market – be able to identify and explain

  • Dupuit’s idea of price discrimination and utility impact on a monopolized market

  • Dupuit’s two elements of entrepreneurship – be able to identify and explain; concept of

product differentiation; Dupuit’s general rule for the provision of public goods and

consumer surplus

Somebody has to take a risk and somebody has to run a company


  • Jevons – background and training – main contributions to economic thinking

Weber-Fechner studies – be able to explain conclusions and implications for utility and

demand

  • Jevon’s four factors of human utility – be able to identify and explain

  • Equimarginal principle – be able to identify and explain

  • Alfred Marshall – bio, most significant publication and primary contributions to

economics

  • Marshall’s perspective on the use of mathematics in economic analysis

  • Marshall’s thinking about the role of time in economic analysis – be able to explain;

definition of ceteris paribus in the context of the demand function

  • Marshall’s short run and long run models – be able to draw and explain Figures 16.1 and

16.2

Pg.400