Hello everyone! I am a long time oberserver, and now first time poster!
Can anyone please recommend books on other schools of economic thought? I am looking for (hopefully concise) books or article that will teach me the basics of what they believe and why.
I’ve come to realize that while I’ve learned a great deal about the Austrian school of economics, I know very little about Chicago, Keynsian, New Keynsian, etc.
I’d like to be able to present my views by saying the Austrians believe in this and why, and then distinguish with what the New Keynsians say, etc.
Good suggestions on Mankiw’s and Keynes. Many thanks! I’ve tried reading Keyne’s before and it was, to say the least, quite dry and frustrating. So far I’ve learned Keynes from Austrian economists.
I guess I have to read it though if I really want to get to know that economic thought - not because I believe in it but for work I need to say “the Keynsians believe this, Monetarists this, Austrians that, etc.”
Reading Keynes is OK for historical value, or to understand some of the fundamentals of modern Keynesian thought, but today’s Keynesian economics are very different in general from the views held by Keynes. In other words, Keynes is not a good source if you want to know about the modern face of Keynesian thought.
I’m honestly not sure what the best Keynesian textbook is. I’m not aware of any modern economic treatise by a major Keynesian author. You can get general ideas by reading popular books, such as anything by Stiglitz. The problem is that the Keynesian school doesn’t seem to have a strict ideology. Most Keynesian economists disagree with each other on certain issues. For example, Krugman has a long history of believing in protectionism, while Stiglitz and Mankiw have critisized him for that. They also have different views on regulation, stimulus and the causes of the current recession.
Nevertheless, the basic foundations of Keynesian economics can be found in any macroeconomics textbook (and Mankiw’s is possibly one of the best; I know Bernanke’s is also widely used). These include concepts like AD/AS, et cetera. You might benefit from an intermediary macroeconomics textbook, as well.
I maintain that every Austrian should at least read one standard economics 101 textbook. If you want to look very quickly into modern mainstream econ. I’d go with the Cartoon Introduction to economics
If you’re looking for a larger and standard textbook just get second hand anything you can find from a secondhand university book shop, but be warned a lot of these f***ers are really expensive. If you can though pickup R. Glenn Hubbard’s Macroeconomics, its a good book that I managed to get for free off of a friend but its like 150$ new so…
And a nice book covering economic history, although admittedly its mostly about the lives of modern economists, and its really skimpy on modern day theory, especially Neo-Keynsianism. But its a good and informative read, the audio book is good as well, I have it on my Ipod!
You could just pick what you thought was a typical and relatively known State University and see what textbooks they are prescribing for their economic courses.
I teach a class that covers various schools of thought (contemporary–it’s not a history of thought class) and I’m afraid there are damn few decent treatments that you can find in one volume. I have been using this:
(Mair and Miller, A Modern Guide to Economic Thought, 1991 Routledge)
It’s a bit old now but it’s not bad. One thing I do not like is that it is obviously written by folks who do not agree with Neoclassicism or Austrianism and it comes through in the chapters on those topics–not terribly, but enough so that you notice. Still, if you want a one-volume introduction that is written more for beginners than other economists, you could do worse than this.
While previous posters have offered some helpful suggestions, I still think that the best way to acquire a firm grasp of mainstream economics is through research papers, scholarly articles, and so forth. This, along with math courses, has helped me more than the textbooks. It’s not easy, though.
stuff outside mainstream: some neo-schumpeterian (eg Nelson/Winter) or neo-institutionalist (eg Williamson) economics… sometimes it even converges with AE… but only sometimes…
Reading Keynes is OK for historical value, or to understand some of the fundamentals of modern Keynesian thought, but today’s Keynesian economics are very different in general from the views held by Keynes. In other words, Keynes is not a good source if you want to know about the modern face of Keynesian thought.
Yeah, Keynes is a lot less ridiculous than the Keynesians. This seems to be true of economics-disciples in general, the Public Choice school is garbage anymore.
