2015/16 Undergraduate Module Catalogue
LUBS2040 Theories of Growth, Value and Distribution
10 creditsClass Size: 130
Module manager: Marco Veronese Passarella
Email: m.passarella@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable
Year running 2015/16
Pre-requisites
LUBS1950 | Economic Theory & Apps 1 |
This module is approved as a discovery module
Module summary
The module is concerned not only with formal theory and methodological differences between schools, but also with the questions relating to the role of politics and ideology within economic thinking. This module explains theories of economic growth, value and distribution as these evolved in the history of economic thought, beginning with a series of historically eminent economic thinkers (for example, Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus, David Ricardo and Karl Marx), and concluding with the first giants of the neoclassical tradition. In addition to the formal theory developed by different thinkers and their chosen methodologies, it considers the importance of politics and ideology to economic thinking. It assesses the relevance today of the great classical economic themes: markets and productivity; population growth and resource limits; the class distribution of income; tendencies in capitalism towards crash and slump. And it considers the rise of neoclassical economics and the comparative shift this entails.Objectives
The aim of this module is to give students grounding in comparative approaches to theories of growth, value and distribution, the differing objectives of the major schools of thought, and their origins in the history of economic thought.Learning outcomes
Upon completion of this module students will be able to:
- Assess major development in the history of ideas in economic analysis and the contributions of major figures in the history of economic thought
- Explain differences in the major comparative approaches to theories of growth, value and distribution
- Recognise the importance of competing paradigms and explain differences in formal theory and methodology and their relevance to past and present debates around issues of economic importance
- Recognise analogies between the great classical economic problems and current worries about globalisation, population pressures and economic crises
- Draw relevant inferences when considering modern policy responses and suggestions
Skills outcomes
On completion of this module students will be able to:
Transferable
- Think critically and analytically, and to communicate succinctly
- Recognise the sensitivities of the sometimes hidden presence of ethical assumptions
Subject specific
- Identify hidden premises vis-à-vis politics and ideology
Syllabus
Indicative content
The content areas taught in this module concern the meaning and method of economics:
The main alternative schools of thought in economic analysis
The major themes developed in these different schools of thought
The history of economic thought
This includes a general introduction to the comparison of alternative approaches to growth, value and distribution; an assessment of the ‘classics’ (Adam Smith on factories, markets, productive and unproductive labour; Thomas Malthus on population, fertility, productivity, and welfare; David Ricardo on the labour theory of value and the theory of land rent; Karl Marx on profit, exploitation, crisis) and a comparison with the first great contributors to neoclassical economics and the ‘marginal revolution’ (with examples including Jevons, Walras and Marshall); and an assessment throughout of the ideology and politics informing the evolution of economic analysis, and the relevance of this today.
Teaching methods
Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
Lecture | 10 | 1.00 | 10.00 |
Seminar | 5 | 1.00 | 5.00 |
Private study hours | 85.00 | ||
Total Contact hours | 15.00 | ||
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 100.00 |
Opportunities for Formative Feedback
Students will be required to prepare answers to questions relating to the distributed reading for classes. Students will have the opportunity to ask questions relating to the module after the lectures, and during the tutorials.Methods of assessment
Exams
Exam type | Exam duration | % of formal assessment |
Standard exam (closed essays, MCQs etc) | 2 hr 00 mins | 100.00 |
Total percentage (Assessment Exams) | 100.00 |
Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated
Reading list
The reading list is available from the Library websiteLast updated: 05/04/2017
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