Reference synthesis
An editorial comparison of the route’s selected accounts and evidence.
A curated synthesis cannot be neutral or exhaustive. Follow the primary sources when an interpretation matters.
Finding the next step…
Compare classical, marginalist, institutional and behavioural accounts of value and price formation.
Read the demand-and-supply foundation if graphs or marginal changes are unfamiliar. Later mathematical texts benefit from calculus; selected historical arguments do not require it.
Four explanations of one price change, each with its assumptions and evidence.
Start here if the background is new. Equivalent experience is enough.
Use marginal change for the later mathematical selections; the historical arguments can be read directly.
Steven Greenlaw, David Shapiro · Daniel MacDonald · reference
Demand, supply and scarcity examples
Check reading access
Open the readingSteven Greenlaw, David Shapiro · Daniel MacDonald · reference
Demand, supply and scarcity examples
Check reading access
Open the readingPrinciples of Economics 3e: demand and supply. Distinguish curve shifts from movements along a curve in one worked market example.
Principles of Economics 3e: choice and scarcity. State the constraint and opportunity cost in the case you want to explain.
Adam Smith · book · 1776
Selected discussions of value, labour and price
Check reading access
Open the readingDavid Ricardo · book · 1817
Selected discussions of value, labour and price
Check reading access
Open the readingKarl Marx · book · 1867
Selected discussions of value, labour and price
Check reading access
Open the readingThe Wealth of Nations. Compare the selected value and price arguments without treating the whole book as a single claim.
Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. Reconstruct the selected value argument and identify the conditions it assumes.
Capital, Volume I. Keep commodity, value, labour and observed price distinct while tracing the selected argument.
Alfred Marshall · book · 1890
Marginal valuation and market-adjustment arguments
Check reading access
Open the readingCarl Menger · book · 1871
Marginal valuation and market-adjustment arguments
Check reading access
Open the readingPrinciples of Economics. Trace the selected marginal and market-adjustment argument using the same good as your earlier comparison.
Principles of Economics. Identify how the selected account links marginal judgement, scarcity and valuation.
Friedrich Hayek · paper · 1945
Dispersed knowledge, externalities and market power
Check reading access
Open the readingSteven Greenlaw, David Shapiro · Daniel MacDonald · reference
Dispersed knowledge, externalities and market power
Check reading access
Open the readingSteven Greenlaw, David Shapiro · Daniel MacDonald · reference
Dispersed knowledge, externalities and market power
Check reading access
Open the readingThe Use of Knowledge in Society. Ask what dispersed information a price coordinates and what the example assumes about the market.
Principles of Economics 3e: externalities. Identify an effect that a private price or decision does not fully account for.
Principles of Economics 3e: monopoly. Compare price formation with and without the competitive assumptions of your initial example.
Editorial perspectives based on selected works, rather than author-endorsed reading lists.
An editorial comparison of the route’s selected accounts and evidence.
A curated synthesis cannot be neutral or exhaustive. Follow the primary sources when an interpretation matters.
An editorial reconstruction using the selected work of Adam Smith.
This is not an author-endorsed syllabus. The reconstruction highlights selected works and may omit other commitments.
An editorial reconstruction using the selected work of Karl Marx.
This is not an author-endorsed syllabus. The reconstruction highlights selected works and may omit other commitments.
An editorial reconstruction using the selected work of Friedrich Hayek.
This is not an author-endorsed syllabus. The reconstruction highlights selected works and may omit other commitments.
Background, different viewpoints, and further reading.
Compare the selected value and price arguments without treating the whole book as a single claim.
Selected discussions of value, labour and price
Reconstruct the selected value argument and identify the conditions it assumes.
Selected discussions of value, labour and price
Keep commodity, value, labour and observed price distinct while tracing the selected argument.
Selected discussions of value, labour and price
Trace the selected marginal and market-adjustment argument using the same good as your earlier comparison.
Marginal valuation and market-adjustment arguments
Identify how the selected account links marginal judgement, scarcity and valuation.
Marginal valuation and market-adjustment arguments
Ask what dispersed information a price coordinates and what the example assumes about the market.
Dispersed knowledge, externalities and market power
Extract one claim and distinguish the evidence supporting it from the author’s interpretation.
Selected chapters and argument
Choose one consumer-choice assumption and explain its role in the model.
A consumer-choice assumption and a behavioural counterexample
Examine one behavioural case and specify which economic assumption it challenges.
A consumer-choice assumption and a behavioural counterexample
Compare this account’s mechanism with the preceding reading; note where their predictions differ.
Selected chapters and argument
Extract one claim and distinguish the evidence supporting it from the author’s interpretation.
Selected chapters and argument
Use this account to revise your initial explanation and identify an unresolved question.
Selected chapters and argument
State the constraint and opportunity cost in the case you want to explain.
Demand, supply and scarcity examples
Distinguish curve shifts from movements along a curve in one worked market example.
Demand, supply and scarcity examples
Work through the model, then identify a real-world institution or assumption the model leaves out.
Named section and worked examples
Work through the model, then identify a real-world institution or assumption the model leaves out.
Named section and worked examples
Work through the model, then identify a real-world institution or assumption the model leaves out.
Named section and worked examples
Compare price formation with and without the competitive assumptions of your initial example.
Dispersed knowledge, externalities and market power
Identify an effect that a private price or decision does not fully account for.
Dispersed knowledge, externalities and market power
Work through the model, then identify a real-world institution or assumption the model leaves out.
Named section and worked examples
Compare explanations of a price change with the role of institutions in economic life.
Separate an account of particular prices from an account of money, banking and inflation.