Political Economy and Society

Are markets self-regulating systems governed by supply and demand, or are they institutions shaped by politics, power, and social relations? In this seminar we examine a basic idea that is simple to state but surprisingly hard fully to appreciate: economic life is always embedded in social and political institutions. If you take seriously that "economic" activity is also, and inseparably, "social" you understand the economy differently than it is understood in the standard narrative put forth not just by mainstream economics but also in a lot of popular (journalistic) economics writing. Key topics include the organization of work, access to housing, land development and resource extraction, credit and financial systems, and the rise of powerful digital platforms. Through these cases, students examine how markets form, how they are governed, and how they shape the distribution of power and opportunity in modern societies.