What is the difference between Keynesian and classical economics?
Ok, this is actually Austrian and Keynesian.Yet it’s fun and cool :)CLASSICAL ECONOMY: Market works best when it is left alone. Any intervention or too much regulation or influence or simply anything government does above the scope of what is necessary to keep the market free, fair and lawfully just is harmful since it disturbs natural flow of supply and demand, which are the best real indicators of what people want.KEYNESIAN ECONOMY: Market is flawed, real market (in opposite to perfect market) is unstable and full of disturbances which are caused by many factors (lack of information, wrong information, monopolistic forces (ability of suppliers to influence the price outside the S/D equilibrium in their favor) and so on). As such, interventions are needed to correct it’s oscillations and to keep it as smooth as possible. (Active monetary policies of central banks, government spending even on short term loans in bad times repaid in good times, government financial incentives, active tax policies…)Both of these concepts are actually outdated and wrong.They are both right in very general terms.Classical economy is right - government usually screw up the market since it is run by politicians and politicians a) usually do not understand economy that much and b) have even other interests than economy itself they smuggle inKeynesian economy is also right - market is flawed and it needs interventions from time to time - but the original extend and kind of interventions which were supported by original Keynesian economists are not all that good.We’ve got new theories now and the major once actually naturally evolved from these two (and they are, very originally, called like “neo-keynesian” and such… really, people should be more inventive with names. Still better than medicine and psychology with it’s “A and B personality type” and “alpha and beta brain waves” and so on, but still quite boring). Describing them wouldn’t be easy (lots of mathematics inside).(This doesn’t mean original theories were bad - as well as physicists do not use Newton but Einstein to calculate trajectories of celestial bodies - it doesn’t mean Newton was completely wrong, it just means Einstein is much better - but Einstein couldn’t be without Newton).Here you have follow-up “episode” for more fun and info :)
How much math is there involved in Economics?
At school the course "Economics" is part of the history department, but from reading around I have seen many people saying that alot of math is involved. I want to take the course but am somewhat discouraged by the fact that math may be involved. What major has more to do with theories surrounding the stability of an economy? I am currently viewing majors in economic development, public policy, human resources, environmental studies, and sociology. Which economics major has the least to do with math? Thanks!!