Last week, I prepared an introductory lecture on Economics for my first-year students at Goldsmiths College, University of London. To stimulate discussion during their first week of classes, I developed a few slides on the evolution of Economics and how it differs from Political Economy. I focused on the idea that Political Economy represents the surplus approach, following the Classical Political Economy tradition, while Economics embodies the scarcity approach, as defined by Lionel Robbins. You can use the link below to view the slides if you find them useful. Please bear in mind that this is a very brief introduction to Economics as a discipline, including a few slides on how science in general evolves. There are many sophisticated aspects not covered in these slides, such as intertemporal optimization, market power, and assumptions about human rationality. However, the slides are sufficient to initiate discussion with students encountering Economics for the very first time:

What is Economics? Economics vs. Political Economy

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