4 main economists at the origin of the different economic policies:
Adam Smith, 1723-1790, founder of the classical approach that takes into account individual micro-economic behaviors, believes that the wealth of nations comes from the division of labour and specialization in the productions for which they have a cost advantage, is at the origin of the notion of invisible hand according to which each one by following his interest contributes to the collective interest
David Ricardo, 1772-1823, following Adam Smith, is at the origin of the theory of comparative advantages and notions such as the link between wages and the value of a good, the neutrality of money, the equilibrium of markets thanks to price movements, considers that free trade allows countries to specialize in the productions in which they are the most efficient.
Karl Marx, 1818-1883, believes that the value of a commodity comes from work alone and is divided between profit and salary, considers that the division between salary and profit results from the exploitation of workers by capitalists who own the means of production, believes that competition, which forces the exploitation of workers, will lead to a revolution that will overthrow the capitalist mode of production.
John Meynard Keynes, 1883-1946, focused on the macroeconomic components of the economy, income, investment and consumption, considered that the market was not automated in order to achieve full employment, and advocated cyclical intervention by the State to stimulate investment and sustain demand in times of economic recession.
6 recent economists between liberals and Keynesian:
Ronald Coase, 1910-2013, considers that the costs associated with economic transactions lead to the formation of institutions that contribute to the reduction of these costs, and is the originator of the Coase theorem, according to which government intervention is not justified in an ideal equilibrium situation, but can be useful under certain conditions.
James Tobin, 1918-2002, is the originator of the theory of investment choices, Tobin’s Q, concerning the capacity of companies to invest and a model concerning the need for savings and liquidity of households, proposed the introduction of a tax on financial transactions while defending free trade.
Armatya Sen, born in 1933, is interested in the field of social welfare economics, considers that social justice does not depend solely on the equity of resource endowments but on the practical capacities of each individual to convert these endowments into freedom of choice, which he calls capabilities, and is the originator of the measurement of the Human Development Index, the HDI.
Oliver Williamson, born in 1932, developed the theory of transaction costs and showed that economic agents with limited but opportunistic rationality will seek institutional arrangements to limit transaction costs.
Michel Aglietta, born in 1938, is at the origin of the regulation school, which aims to explain the transition from periods of growth to periods of crisis, it combines elements of the institutionalism approach to identify institutions favorable to growth, the Marxist approach by considering the balance of power in the distribution of the value created by production and the Keynesian approach to make mass production compatible with mass consumption, insists on the need to introduce new rules for capital mobility, to strengthen prudential control of the markets and the implementation of counter-cyclical policies.
Jean Tirolle, born in 1953, starting from the micro-economic approach and the theory of games which concerns the interactions between agents, is mainly interested in industrial economics, the functioning of markets and the behavior of companies on the markets, and in behavioral economics which is interested in particular in the non-rational behavior of human beings in certain economic situations
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