In the history of economic thought, a school of economic thought is a group of economic thinkers who share a common perspective on how economies work. Although economists do not always fit into particular schools, particularly in modern times, classifying economists into schools of thought is common. Economic thought can be divided into three phases: pre-modern (Greek-Roman, Indian, Persian, Islamic, and Chinese imperial), modern-modern (mercantilist, physiocratic), and modern (beginning with Adam Smith and classical economics in the late 18th century). Systematic economic theory has developed mainly since the beginning of what is called the modern era.
Today, the vast majority of economists follow an approach called mainstream economics (sometimes called "orthodox economics"). Within the mainstream in the United States, distinctions can be made between the saltwater school (associated with Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Yale) and the more laissez-faire ideas of the freshwater school (represented by the Chicago School of Economics, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Rochester and the University of Minnesota). Both schools of thought are associated with the neoclassical synthesis.
Some influential approaches from the past, such as the historical school of economics and institutional economics, have disappeared or diminished in influence, and are now considered heterodox approaches. Other long-standing heterodox schools of economic thought include Austrian economics and Marxist economics. Some more recent developments in economic thought such as feminist economics and ecological economics adapt and critique mainstream approaches with an emphasis on particular themes rather than developing as independent schools.
To speak of a school, it must meet the Stiglerian criteria: school lasts while the founders work; has a body of original economic analysis; the isolation of a strategic variable is of great importance; they have a model, and finally, there are some economic policy conclusions that the disciples put into practice. The schools of economic thought are:
- Neoclassical School:
- Cambridge English School.
- Lausanne School of General Equilibrium
- Austrian school.
- American school.
- Swedish school.
- Mathematical school.
- New Keynesian school.
- Keynesian school.
- Classical school.
- Marxist school.
- German historicist school.
- Chicago School.
- Monetarist school.
- School of public choice.
- Institutionalist school.
