--- title: Political Economy description: This interdisciplinary subject studies the relationship between political institutions, laws, and economic systems. Learners will understand how political forces influence government policies, market dynamics, wealth distribution, and international trade systems. category: social-sciences subcategory: political-science difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/political-economy --- # Political Economy This interdisciplinary subject studies the relationship between political institutions, laws, and economic systems. Learners will understand how political forces influence government policies, market dynamics, wealth distribution, and international trade systems. ## Available Resources 4 Books • 3 Courses • 4 Websites ## Websites ### 1. Political Economy Research Institute Heterodox economics research institute at UMass Amherst, publishing free working papers, policy briefs, and datasets on labor markets, financial regulation, climate investment, and capital flight. Readers gain empirical grounding in progressive policy debates and the evidence behind them. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://peri.umass.edu/ **Tags:** political-economy, heterodox-economics, working-papers, economic-policy, labor-economics ### 2. ineteconomics.org INET (Institute for New Economic Thinking) promotes innovative, heterodox approaches to economic theory and policy. The site hosts research articles, interviews and talks, videos, podcasts, and event resources showcasing alternative economics and experimental methods. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://ineteconomics.org **Tags:** websites, humanities-social-sciences, economics ### 3. European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy (EAEPE) Website of the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy, a scholarly society for evolutionary, institutional and heterodox economics, listing its annual conferences, research areas, prizes and summer schools. Useful for following current research networks outside mainstream neoclassical economics. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://eaepe.org **Tags:** evolutionary-economics, political-economy, institutional-economics, heterodox-economics, academic-association ### 4. imf.org IMF.org is the official website of the International Monetary Fund, providing authoritative analysis, data, and policy guidance on global economics and international finance. It offers publications, statistical data, research, and information on IMF lending programs and country surveillance. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://imf.org **Tags:** websites, business-entrepreneurship, international-business ## Courses ### 1. The Political Economy of Economic Policy This course is part of the SDG initiative addressing the UN Sustainable Development Goals, specifically for the following SDGs [1, 8, 10 and 16]. We hope you will join in our efforts to reach the SDG’s in small but measurable and actionable ways, cooperating with Development Done Differently. Expand your impact. You can create a better world. In today’s world, politics and economics are interconnected, but what is the nature of this connectivity? What are the power relationships that shape the world economy today and create new challenges for international institutions facing globalization? What makes some countries wealthier than others? Do we face cultural diversity or fragmentation? Does the type of governance effect economic development and social change or is it the other way around? How do we measure it and how trustworthy is the data? These issues and many more will be examined in this course along with a wide library of sources and a biting criticism. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.coursera.org/learn/political-economy **Tags:** political-economy, institutions, economic-development, globalization, governance ### 2. Energy Decisions, Markets, and Policies (MIT 15.031J) **Author:** Richard Schmalensee How households, firms and governments choose among energy sources and uses, covering energy markets, electricity regulation, energy policy and technology choices across many countries and settings. Includes 21 lecture videos and lecture slides. Builds frameworks for analysing energy decisions and evaluating policy. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/15-031j-energy-decisions-markets-and-policies-spring-2012/ **Tags:** energy-policy, energy-markets, electricity-regulation, energy-economics ### 3. Game Theory **Author:** Matthew O. Jackson, Yoav Shoham, Kevin Leyton-Brown Stanford and University of British Columbia course on the mathematical modeling of strategic interaction: normal and extensive form games, Nash equilibrium, mixed strategies, Bayesian games, and repeated and stochastic games. Learners can formalize strategic situations and solve them for equilibria. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.coursera.org/learn/game-theory-1 **Tags:** game-theory, nash-equilibrium, extensive-form-games, bayesian-games, repeated-games ## Podcasts ### 1. Capitalisn't **Author:** Bethany McLean, Luigi Zingales Podcast from the Stigler Center at Chicago Booth in which economist Luigi Zingales and journalist Bethany McLean examine where capitalism fails: market power, regulatory capture, corporate influence on politics and antitrust. Listeners learn to analyse policy debates in terms of incentives, rents and institutions. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** en | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://capitalisnt.com **Tags:** capitalism, political-economy, regulatory-capture, antitrust, market-power ### 2. The Ezra Klein Show **Author:** Ezra Klein New York Times interview podcast in which Ezra Klein holds long conversations with scholars, policymakers and writers on politics, economics, climate, technology and social policy. Listeners get in-depth arguments about how public problems arise and what policy responses might work. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** en | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast **Tags:** public-policy, politics, political-economy, interviews, ideas ## Books ### 1. Political Economy **Author:** Barry R. Weingast, Donald A. Wittman Oxford University Press handbook surveying political economy through dozens of commissioned chapters on voting theory, legislatures, bureaucracy, constitutions, and international political economy. Useful for locating the main models and empirical debates within each subfield before reading further. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0199548471?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, political-science ### 2. Capitalism and Freedom **Author:** Milton Friedman Friedman's 1962 argument that competitive markets are a precondition for political liberty, applied to monetary policy, education vouchers, occupational licensing, and the negative income tax. Readers see the case for limiting government stated in its original form. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0226264017?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, political-science ### 3. The Road to Serfdom **Author:** F. A. Hayek Hayek's 1944 warning that central economic planning erodes political freedom, drawing on interwar Europe to argue that state direction of production concentrates coercive power. Readers get the classic liberal case against planning and the rule-of-law alternative. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0226320618?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, political-science ### 4. The Oil Curse: How Petroleum Wealth Shapes the Development of Nations **Author:** Michael L. Ross Ross uses cross-country data to test why petroleum wealth tends to leave governments less accountable, less reliant on taxation, more prone to authoritarian durability and to slower progress for women, and where the pattern breaks down. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0691159637?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** resource curse, petrostates, development --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).* View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/political-economy