Articles by Alex M Thomas

The author of Macroeconomics: An Introduction responds to the review of his book titled, “Competing Frameworks of Economic Thought” (EPW, 18 December 2021).

The contributions of Paul Romer and William Nordhaus to both economic theory and policy are critically assessed here. By undertaking a brief history of economic thinking prior to their pioneering work, it validates the Nobel award. However, it is argued that the Nobel Prize has mostly been awarded to work that employs neoclassical, or more accurately, marginalist assumptions. On the policy front, it is suggested that India should formulate its economic policies by drawing inspiration from some of the work by Samuel Bowles and Mariana Mazzucato alongside that of Romer and Nordhaus.

Worldwide, a concerted and systematic criticism of the way economics is taught began after the onslaught of the 2007 global financial crisis. In India, postgraduate economics education has received more attention than its undergraduate counterpart. After identifying some structural constraints of undergraduate education in India, a set of curricular and pedagogic recommendations to improve undergraduate economics education is explored.

Pranjul Bhandari's use of the Cobb-Douglas production function in "Decoding the Growth Target" (EPW, 16 March 2013) suffers from two sets of interrelated methodological problems. The first one is at the theoretical level and the second one is empirical in nature.