EH429 Half Unit
History of Economics: Ideas, Policy and Performativity
This information is for the 2025/26 session.
Course Convenor
Prof Mary Morgan
Availability
This course is available on the MA in Modern History, MRes in Accounting (AOI) (Accounting, Organisations and Institutions Track), MSc in Economic History, MSc in Economic History (Research), MSc in Financial History, MSc in Global Economic History, MSc in International and World History (LSE & Columbia), MSc in Philosophy of Economics and the Social Sciences and MSc in Political Economy of Late Development. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process.
How to apply: All Economic History courses are controlled access and capped. Priority will be given to students for whom the course is within their programme regulations.
All course choices submitted before the deadline will be considered. It is advisable that students submit a statement in support of their course choices as these will be used to allocate places where a course is oversubscribed.
Deadline for application: First round offers will be sent on Monday 29 September 2025. Students who submit their course choices after the deadline and students wishing to take an Economic History course as an outside option will be waitlisted initially and informed by Wednesday 1 October 2025 whether they have been successful.
Once an offer has been sent, you have 48 hours to accept it before it times out. Once an offer has timed out, it will be re-allocated to someone on the waitlist. In all cases, it is strongly advised that you have an alternative course choice as a back-up in case you are unable to secure your first choice.
For queries contact: If you have any questions, please contact the MSc Programmes Officer (o.harrison1@lse.ac.uk) A list of all taught master's courses in this Department are listed on LSE's course guide webpages. Guidance on how to apply to individual controlled access courses can also be found on LSE for You.
This course has a limited number of places (it is controlled access). In previous years we have not been able to provide places for all students that apply. Students will be asked to submit a short statement of their reasoning to support their course choice.
Course content
The course aim is to understand how economics has been used to change the world. It brings together the long tradition of analysis of economics as a policy science with more recent ideas about the performativity of economics. It draws on the literatures of economic history, history of economics, political economy and sociology of accounting, and philosophy of science to explore the aims and methods used by economists to influence, shape and direct the economy. The focus of study will be on particular episodes from 20th century history in which economics features as a technical art that translates ideas through policy into action (e.g. the transition from colonial to independent economies; the Soviet and Cuban revolutions; and the reconstruction of depressed and damaged economies).
Teaching
11 hours of lectures and 11 hours of classes in the Winter Term.
This course includes an archive visit in Week 6 of Winter Term
Formative assessment
Students will be expected to work in groups and produce one group work and one individual essay, and contribute reading notes to shared Moodle resources.
Indicative reading
Reading lists will be given out at the beginning of the course. Henry Spiegel's The Growth of Economic Thought (various editions, Duke University Press) provides a general background text to history of economics. T.M. Porter’s Trust in Numbers (1995, Duke University Press) is an important item on the reading list that can be usefully read ahead of the course.
Assessment
Exam (100%), duration: 120 Minutes in the Spring exam period
Key facts
Department: Economic History
Course Study Period: Winter Term
Unit value: Half unit
FHEQ Level: Level 7
CEFR Level: Null
Total students 2024/25: 33
Average class size 2024/25: 17
Controlled access 2024/25: YesCourse selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.
Personal development skills
- Self-management
- Team working
- Problem solving
- Communication
- Specialist skills