Azim Premji University

Alex M Thomas

Areas of Interest & Expertise

  • History of Economic Thought
  • Classical Political Economy

Biography

Alex M. Thomas, received his economics education from the universities of Madras, Hyderabad, and Sydney. He has published in both national and international journals such as Artha Vijnana, Economic & Political Weekly, European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, History of Economic Ideas, History of Economics Review, and Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics.

He has taught ​‘History of Economic Thought’, ​‘Intermediate Macroeconomics’, ​‘Introduction to Economics II’, ​‘Quantitative Reasoning for Humanities’, ​‘Understanding India‑1’, ​‘Growth Theory’, and ​‘Advanced Writing’ in the last 6 years at the undergraduate level. 

Prior to joining Azim Premji University, he taught introductory microeconomics and macroeconomics from 2011 – 14 to undergraduate students at the University of Sydney.

He is currently working on a textbook on the history of economic thought.

Alex has given invited lectures on: classical economics at the University of Hyderabad (2015), Central University of Tamil Nadu (2018), Kristu Jayanti College (2018), Bengaluru B. R. Ambedkar School of Economics (BASE) (2019), and Sree Sankara College, Kalady, Kerala (2020); the Indian economy at the Maulana Azad National Urdu University (2016, 2018), University of Hyderabad (2016, 2017), St. Joseph’s College (2017), National Public School, Indira Nagar (2017), Farook College (2017), and Christ (Deemed to be University) (2018); and the history of economic thought at the Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Trivandrum (2019), Jawaharlal Nehru University (2019), University of Hyderabad (2019), National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), New Delhi (2019), Centre for Budget and Policy Studies (CBPS), Bengaluru (2019), St. Joseph’s College (2019). Some of these lectures are available for viewing here and here.

He also delivered the economics lecture at the 1st Bengaluru Central University (BCU) Nobel Lecture Series (2018), the 14th Dr. M. V. Kurien Commemorative Lecture at Union Christian (UC) College, Aluva (2019) on ​‘Adam Smith and his Contemporary Relevance’, and the 29th K. K. Francis Memorial Lecture, St. Berchmans (SB) College, Changanacherry (2021): ​‘History of Economic Thought: Rigorous and Relevant’.

Courses

Publications and Writings

Books

  • (2021), Macroeconomics: An Introduction, New Delhi: Cambridge University Press.
  • (2019), Pluralistic Economics and its History, co-edited with Ajit Sinha, Routledge.

Journal Articles

  • (2021), ​‘On ​“Effectual Demand” and the ​“Extent of the Market” in Adam Smith and David Ricardo’, European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 305 – 23.
  • (2018), ​‘A Note on the Role of Aggregate Demand in Ricardo’, History of Economics Review, vol. 70, no. 1, pp. 60 – 71. ,
  • (2018), ​‘Consumption and Activity Levels in Cantillon’s Essai’, History of Economic Ideas, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 11 – 29.
  • (2018), ​‘Arun Bose on Sraffa: Value Theory and Demand’, Artha Vijnana, Special Issue on the Indian Reception of Piero Sraffa’s Economic Contributions, vol. 60, no. 1, pp. 17 – 33.
  • (2018), ​‘Adam Smith on the Philosophy and Provision of Education’, Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 105 – 116.

Notes & Commentary

  • (2019), ​‘Romer and Nordhaus’s Nobel Winning Contributions’, Economic & Political Weekly, vol. 54, no. 35, pp. 10 – 13.
  • (2019), ​‘Adam Smith on Wages and Education: Some Policy Implications for India’, Indian Journal of Human Development, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 84 – 89.
  • (2018), (with Rahul De) ​‘Rethinking Undergraduate Economics Education’, Economic & Political Weekly, vol. 53, no. 3, pp. 21 – 24.
  • (2017), ​‘Ricardo’s Principles, 200 years later’, Artha Vijnana, vol. 59, no. 4, pp. 334 – 338.
  • (2015), (with L. Walling) ​‘On Interest, Investment and Economic Growth’, Comment, Economic & Political Weekly, vol. L, no. 17, pp. 125 – 6.
  • (2015), ​‘Economic Survey 2014 – 15: Growth Policy and Theory’, Economic & Political Weekly, vol. L, no. 32, pp. 62 – 65.
  • (2013), (with D. P. Priyadarshi Joshi) ​‘Using an Aggregate Production Function: Some Methodological Issues’, Economic & Political Weekly, vol. XLVIII, no. 17, pp. 55 – 6.
  • (2012), ​‘Cantillon’s Political Economy’, Economic & Political Weekly, vol. XLVII, no. 31, pp. 92- 96.
  • (2011), (with G. Omkarnath & L. Walling), ​‘Pierangelo Garegnani: A Tribute’, Economic & Political Weekly, vol. XLVI, no. 52, pp. 27 – 29.

Book Reviews

  • (2021, forthcoming), [Review of Dinyar Patel’s Naoroji: Pioneer of Indian Nationalism], Artha Vijnana.
  • (2021, forthcoming), [Review of Esteban Perez Caldentey’s Roy Harrod], Indian Journal of Human Development.
  • (2020), [Review of Alessandro Roncaglia’s The Age of Fragmentation: A History of Contemporary Economic Thought], Economic & Political Weekly, vol. 55, no. 45, pp. 28 – 31.
  • (2020), [Review of Christopher J. Berry’s Adam Smith: A Very Short Introduction], Indian Journal of Human Development, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 344 – 6.
  • (2019), [Review of Alessandro Roncaglia’s A Brief History of Economic Thought], Artha Vijnana, vol. 61, no. 4, pp. 364 – 372.
  • (2019), [Review of Saumen Chattopadhyay’s Macroeconomics of the Black Economy], Economic & Political Weekly, vol. LIV, no, 33, pp. 47 – 8.
  • (2019), ​‘The Fact/​Fiction of Indian Agriculture’, Foundation for Agrarian Studies (FAS) Blog. [Review of Kota Neelima’s Death of a Moneylender]
  • (2018), (with Varun Nallur), ​‘Urgency of Inclusive Education’, The Book Review. [Review of Dynamics of Inclusive Classroom: Social Diversity, Inequality and School Education edited by M. K. Tiwary, S. Kumar, and A. K. Mishra]
  • (2017), [Review of Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century], Beyond Disciplines: An International Journal of Central University of Karnataka, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 130 – 134.
  • (2017), [Review of Vijay Joshi’s India’s Long Road: The Search for Prosperity], Artha Journal of Social Sciences, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 87 – 92
  • (2016), [Review of Heinz Kurz’s Economic Thought: A Brief History], Economic & Political Weekly, vol. LI, no. 43, pp. 35 – 8.
  • (2015), [Review of S. R. Khan’s A History of Development Economics Thought], History of Economics Review, July.
  • (2014), ‘(Mis)understanding economic growth and development’, Book reviews, ISBinsight, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 59 – 60. [Review of An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions J. Dréze & A. Sen and Why Growth Matters: How Economic Growth in India Reduced Poverty and the Lessons for Other Developing Countries by J. Bhagwati & A. Panagariya]

Book Chapter

  • (2019), ​‘Theories of Activity Levels and Growth before Adam Smith’, in A. Sinha and A. M. Thomas (eds.) Pluralistic Economics and its History, New Delhi: Routledge.

Other Selected Publications

  • (2020), ​‘Revisiting the Economic Thought of K. N. Raj’, Ala: A Kerala Studies Blog, Issue 22.
  • (2019), (with Varun Nallur), ​‘The Forgotten Funds’, Op-Ed, The Hindu, June 20.
  • (2019), ​‘Why Adam Smith favoured Public Education’, Op-Ed, The Hindu, January 10.
  • (2018), ​‘Demonetisation Made Winners of Companies Like Paytm, The Poor Are Still Counting The Costs’, Huffington Post India, November 9.
  • (2017), ​‘Increasing Economic Disparity In India Is Making It Impossible For The Poor To Have A Good Life’, Huffington Post India, December 27.
  • (2017), ​‘Jean Drèze’s Sense and Solidarity: Jholawala Economics for Everyone Rightly Underscores Ethics and Social Norms’, Huffington Post India, October 5.
  • (2017), ​‘Why ​“One Nation, One Tax” Doesn’t Really Make Sense in India’, Huffington Post India, September 9.
  • (2017), ​‘India’s Short Road to Crisis’, Jacobin, February 24.
  • (2016), ​‘The foreign hand isn’t enough’, The Hindu, Op-ed, September 8.
  • (2016), ‘(Un)learning Economics’, Teacher Plus, Cover Story, May-June, pp. 88 – 91.
  • (2012), ​‘Economics Textbooks as Commodities’, Student Struggle, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 19 – 21.
  • (2012), ​‘Heterodox Economics’, (with T. Arora, N. Kumar et al), Letter, Economic & Political Weekly, vol. XLVII, no. 5, p. 4.

Blog

Alex has been blogging on economic topics, particularly the history of economic thought, macroeconomics, Indian economy and the methodology of economics since 2006. His blog’s address is www​.alexmthomas​.com, which finds a mention in the Heterodox Economics Directory.