Political Economy
Political economy refuses the split between economics and politics. From mercantilism and classical rent theory to Marx, Polanyi, dependency theory and modern institutional economics, the figures here explain who owns what, who decides, and why reform is hard. Their arguments still structure debates over inequality, trade, development and the role of the state.
15 indexed lives · 2 Nobel laureates · 10 countries
Where to start
Gunnar Myrdal
1898 – 1987Cumulative causation and the economics of racial inequality in America.
Friedrich Hayek
1899 – 1992Prices as information; the intellectual engine of late-century market liberalism.
Thomas Robert Malthus
1766 – 1834Population pressure as an economic law; the argument every food and climate debate revisits.
Nobel recognition in Political Economy
- Gunnar Myrdal
Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, 1974
- Friedrich Hayek
Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, 1974