Introduction to Economic Theories

Target group

Wondering why economists have not predicted financial crises? Shocked by economic assumptions of human behavior as self-centered? Asking yourself if there are no sensible economic alternatives to free markets? Then you are at the right place to learn economics!

Course information 

This is the first online course that teaches pluralist economics. This means that a plurality of theoretical and methodological viewpoints is regarded as valuable in itself and is the best way to understanding the world. I will introduce you to four theories for the whole set of standard topics in microeconomics and macroeconomics. The theories are presented from broad and more interdisciplinary to narrow and more mathematical. They are Social Economics, Institutional Economics, Post Keynesian economics and finally Neoclassical Economics, for the special case of ideally functioning markets. But not everything is different in this course. Like every economics course, it includes numbers, diagrams, equations, and some basic calculations.

The objective of this course is twofold. First, to enable you to understand different economic viewpoints, linked to important traditions in economic thought, and basic economic concepts belonging to these perspectives. Second, to enable you to understand or do some basic economic calculations, such as inflation or the profit rate.