Political economy

Political economy was the original term for the study of production, the acts of buying and selling, and their relationships to laws, customs and government. It developed in 18th century as the study of the economies of states (also known as polities, hence the word "political" in "political economy"). In contradistinction to the theory of the physiocrats, in which land was seen as the source of all wealth, political economists proposed the labour theory of value (first introduced by John Locke, developed by Adam Smith and later Karl Marx), according to which labour is the real source of value. Political economists also attracted attention to the accelerating development of technology, whose role in economic and social relationships grew ever more important.

External links

• History of Economic Thought - This compendium hosted by the New School has collected bios on over 500 economists and introductions to many schools of thought.
• Global Political Economy Net Mailing lists and other reference material by scholars of "The Global Political Economy"
• Political Economy of Space Development
• New Political Economy Research Center, University of Sheffield.
• Constitutional Political Economy Most recent issues online.
• George Mason University: Buchanan Center for Political Economy
• Political Economic Research Center, UMass Amherst