Historical Origins The Solow Growth Model, developed by Robert Solow in the mid‑1950s, marked a decisive shift in growth theory. Prior to Solow, economic growth was often explained through capital accumulation alone, with little distinction between short‑run fluctuations and long‑run structural dynamics. Solow introduced a framework that separated capital deepening, labour growth, and technological progress, demonstrating that long‑run growth depends primarily on productivity

Historical Origins Conceptual microeconomic analysis has its roots in the classical and neoclassical traditions of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when economists sought to formalise how individuals and firms respond to prices, incentives, and constraints. The marginalist revolution—Jevons, Walras, Marshall—introduced the analytical tools that still underpin modern microeconomics: demand curves, supply functions, marginal cost, elasticity, and equilibrium.

Historical Origins Socioeconomic scenario analysis emerged from the intersection of futures studies, demography, development economics, and systems thinking. While early scenario planning focused on geopolitical and energy‑market uncertainty, by the 1980s and 1990s researchers recognised that social and demographic variables were equally uncertain, path‑dependent, and structurally important. Institutions such as the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)

Historical Origins Econometrics emerged in the early twentieth century as economists sought to move beyond theoretical reasoning and ground economic claims in empirical evidence. Ragnar Frisch, Jan Tinbergen, and later the Cowles Commission formalised the discipline by integrating economic theory, statistical inference, and mathematical modelling. Their work established the foundations of modern causal analysis, structural modelling, and forecasting. By the 1960s and 1970s, e

Historical Origins The Social Accounting Matrix emerged in the 1970s as development economists sought a more comprehensive representation of economic structure than traditional Input–Output tables could provide. While I‑O analysis captured inter‑industry flows, it could not show how income generated in production was distributed across households, government, and the rest of the world. Early pioneers—including Richard Stone and Graham Pyatt—extended national accounts into a u

Historical Origins Cost–Benefit Analysis emerged in the early twentieth century as governments sought a systematic method to evaluate large public‑works projects—particularly water infrastructure, flood control, and transport investments in the United States. The U.S. Flood Control Act of 1936 is widely recognised as the first formal mandate requiring that project benefits “exceed costs,” establishing CBA as a decision rule for public investment. Over subsequent decades, CBA

Historical Origins Input–Output analysis was formalised by Wassily Leontief in the 1930s as a response to the need for systematic measurement of industrial interdependence in modern economies. Leontief’s tables translated production processes into a matrix of sectoral transactions, enabling analysts to trace how output in one industry requires inputs from others. Initially applied to national planning and wartime production logistics, I‑O methods spread into development econo

Intellectual and Historical Profile Thomas Sowell stands as one of the most influential contemporary thinkers in political economy, known for his rigorous empiricism, institutional realism, and ability to translate complex economic mechanisms into clear, operational insights. Writing from the late twentieth century into the present, Sowell’s work spans a period marked by the Cold War, the rise of globalisation, the expansion of welfare states, and the increasing politicisatio

Intellectual and Historical Profile Friedrich A. Hayek developed his intellectual project in the shadow of twentieth‑century totalitarian experiments, the rise of centrally planned economies, and the institutional ruptures that followed two world wars. He wrote as Europe confronted the practical and moral failures of authoritarian planning and as democracies struggled to rebuild credible market institutions. Hayek combined rigorous theoretical analysis with a sustained normat

Intellectual and Historical Profile Milton Friedman’s intellectual career unfolded against the defining macroeconomic crises of the twentieth century: the Great Depression, the post‑war reconstruction era, and the stagflation of the 1970s. Trained in rigorous empirical methods and price‑theoretic reasoning, Friedman combined theoretical clarity with policy engagement. He challenged prevailing Keynesian prescriptions by emphasising the primacy of monetary stability, the limits

Intellectual and Historical Profile Jean‑Baptiste Say wrote and practised during a turbulent and formative period in French and European history: the aftermath of the French Revolution, the Napoleonic wars, the restoration of political order, and the early phases of industrial modernisation. Born into an era of institutional reconstruction, Say combined practical commercial experience with systematic economic reflection. His principal work, A Treatise on Political Economy (f

Intellectual and Historical Profile Thomas Robert Malthus wrote at a historical inflection point defined by rapid population growth, recurring agricultural crises, and the uneven social effects of early industrialisation. His An Essay on the Principle of Population (first edition, 1798) introduced a systematic, empirically informed framework that linked economic output to underlying socioeconomic conditions—household formation, subsistence constraints, labour markets and inst

Intellectual and Historical Profile John Stuart Mill wrote at the intellectual and social fulcrum of nineteenth‑century industrial modernity. His formative years and scholarly career unfolded against rapid urbanisation, the mechanisation of production, the rise of factory labour, and the attendant social dislocations—public health crises, class conflict, and widening inequalities—that accompanied Britain’s transformation into an industrial powerhouse. Trained in rigorous log

Intellectual and Historical Profile David Ricardo developed his core theoretical contributions against a backdrop of intense economic turbulence and political contestation. The Napoleonic Wars (c. 1803–1815) disrupted European trade, raised food prices during wartime scarcity, and left Britain with large public debts and volatile markets—conditions that sharpened contemporary debates about trade policy, fiscal capacity, and social stability. In the immediate postwar period, f

Intellectual and Historical Profile Thomas Hobbes emerged as a formative political thinker amid the convulsions of seventeenth‑century England: civil war, regicide, regime change, and the breakdown of customary authority. His Leviathan is not an abstract moral tract but a programmatic response to social disintegration. Hobbes begins from a stark empirical premise: in the absence of reliable institutions, human interactions tend toward competition, insecurity, and violent conf

Intellectual and Historical Profile Adam Smith emerged from the Scottish Enlightenment, a period of intellectual vibrancy characterised by advances in philosophy, science, jurisprudence, and political economy. Writing during the early Industrial Revolution, Smith observed the transformation of agrarian societies into commercial and manufacturing economies. The rise of mechanisation, the expansion of global trade networks, and the emergence of new labour systems created unprec

Intellectual and Historical Profile John Locke emerged as the defining intellectual force of the seventeenth century, a period marked by civil war, monarchical collapse, religious fragmentation, and the gradual consolidation of constitutional government in England. His work was not produced in academic isolation: it was forged in the midst of political instability, contested sovereignty, and the urgent need to articulate a framework capable of restraining arbitrary power whil

Mining has become one of the most strategically relevant pillars of the 21st‑century geopolitical landscape. In a world defined by industrial competition, fragmented supply chains, and the race to secure inputs for advanced manufacturing, critical minerals such as copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, rare earth elements—have acquired a significance that extends far beyond economics. They are now essential for industrial autonomy, technological infrastructure, and the manufacturin

The analysis of the role of modern institutions and culture in advancing Human Rights (HR) is essential to understand the conditions that enable or hinder their effective realization. From the New Institutionalism (NI) approach, institutions are understood as central actors shaping political behaviour, as they structure norms, values, identities, and culture. In this framework, culture is conceived as a set of shared norms, meanings, and ideas. However, although institution

There is an implicit premise in debates about digital politics: greater visibility on social networks necessarily equates to a greater capacity for mobilization. However, from the discussion in the seminar and the analysis of Margetts et al. (Margetts, Hale, & John, 2015), it is possible to point out that online collective action, despite having the same logic as classic collective action, fails quickly and only a few manage to consolidate. While digital platforms transform t