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Power and Neoclassical Economics

A Return to Political Economy in the Teaching of Economics

  • Book
  • © 2016

Overview

Authors:
  1. Adam Ozanne

    1. University of Manchester, UK

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  • Reasserts the role of power in determining economic outcomes
  • Reviews definitions of theories and power from across the social sciences
  • Radically reassesses economic orthodoxy

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Table of contents (11 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-viii
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  2. Introduction

    • Adam Ozanne
    Pages 1-5

  3. Why Does Neoclassical Economics Ignore Power?

    • Adam Ozanne
    Pages 6-12

  4. Why Power Matters for Economics

    • Adam Ozanne
    Pages 13-18

  5. Challenges to Mainstream Economics from PCES and Piketty

    • Adam Ozanne
    Pages 19-31

  6. Political Economics and Cooperative Game Theory

    • Adam Ozanne
    Pages 32-39

  7. The Concept of Power

    • Adam Ozanne
    Pages 40-43

  8. Bartlett’s Economic Theory of Power

    • Adam Ozanne
    Pages 44-50

  9. A New Definition of Power

    • Adam Ozanne
    Pages 51-55

  10. Re-envisioning the Social Welfare Function as a “Political Economy Function”

    • Adam Ozanne
    Pages 56-67

  11. Examples of Applications of the Political Economy Function

    • Adam Ozanne
    Pages 68-82

  12. Conclusion

    • Adam Ozanne
    Pages 83-86

  13. Back Matter

    Pages 87-101
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Keywords

About this book

Mainstream economics almost completely ignores the role power plays in determining economic outcomes, which means it can only provide partial explanations of the distribution of wealth and income, and of the problems associated with inequality and poverty. For many, this is a fundamental failing that severely limits its relevance to the real world and is the source of much dissatisfaction with, and cynicism about, economics and economists. Ozanne explains how this neglect of power has come about over the past 150 years and why it is important. He reviews various definitions and theories of power from across the social sciences and proposes a new approach that could bring considerations of power back into standard economic theory and economics teaching. The approach is simple and intuitive, involving little more than re-envisioning the social welfare function as a 'political economy function'. However, if adopted in economics teaching, it could radically change the way young economistsare taught to think about economic problems and lead to a 'return to political economy'.

Authors and Affiliations

  • University of Manchester, UK

    Adam Ozanne

About the author

Adam Ozanne has degrees in physics and astronomy, rural development, and agricultural economics. He also began a DPhil in nuclear astrophysics but abandoned it and went instead to teach maths and physics in Pakistan and work for a Third World development agency. He is now a Senior Lecturer teaching economics at the University of Manchester, UK.

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