From Adam Smith to Simulation

Computing the Ideas that Built Economics — The University of Edinburgh

A 10-week course pairing the history of economic thought with computational exercises in Python. Each module tells the story of a transformative idea — from Adam Smith’s invisible hand to Piketty’s inequality dynamics — then teaches you to build, solve, and simulate the model behind it. No prior programming experience is assumed; the course teaches Python as it goes. All materials are open access.

How to use these materials

Each week has a notebook you can read online, download, or run in the cloud, plus a slide deck for the lecture:

  • Read online — click the notebook link; it renders as a webpage with all code and output.
  • Run in Google Colab — click the Colab badge and the notebook opens ready to run in your browser. Nothing to install.
  • Run locally — install Anaconda (includes Python, Jupyter, NumPy, and Matplotlib), then download the .ipynb file and open it in Jupyter.

Materials

Week Topic Notebook Slides Colab
1 The Invisible Hand — Adam Smith & Market Equilibrium View PDF Open in Colab
2 The Pin Factory — Division of Labour & Comparative Advantage View PDF Open in Colab
3 Malthus & Ricardo — Population, Land, and the Limits to Growth View PDF Open in Colab
4 Marx & the Machinery Question — Capital and the Labour Share View PDF Open in Colab
5 The Marginalist Revolution — Utility, Optimisation & Neoclassical Economics View PDF Open in Colab
6 Keynes & the Multiplier — Aggregate Demand and Fiscal Policy View PDF Open in Colab
7 The Solow Growth Model — Capital Accumulation and Steady States View PDF Open in Colab
8 Expectations & the Lucas Critique — Why Policy Rules Matter View PDF Open in Colab
9 Inequality & Distribution — Piketty, Markov Chains & the Wealth Distribution View PDF Open in Colab
10 Edinburgh’s Legacy — Market Failures, Externalities & the Future View PDF Open in Colab

Each notebook includes interactive exercises with hidden solutions — try first, then click to check.

Full syllabus: View · PDF

Syllabus

  1. The Invisible Hand — Adam Smith and market equilibrium
  2. The Pin Factory — division of labour, specialisation, and trade
  3. Malthus & Ricardo — population, diminishing returns, and the Malthusian trap
  4. Marx & the Machinery Question — surplus value, capital, and the labour share
  5. The Marginalist Revolution — marginal utility, consumer choice, and demand
  6. Keynes & the Multiplier — the Great Depression, aggregate demand, and fiscal policy
  7. The Solow Growth Model — capital accumulation, steady states, and the sources of growth
  8. Expectations & the Lucas Critique — adaptive vs rational expectations
  9. Inequality & Distribution — Markov chains, wealth simulation, and the Gini coefficient
  10. Edinburgh’s Legacy — externalities, information asymmetry, and the future of economics

Assessment

  • Weekly quizzes: 20%
  • Computational essays (3 over the term): 40%
  • Final project: 30%
  • Participation: 10%

References

  • Smith, A. The Wealth of Nations (1776) — available free at econlib.org
  • Heilbroner, R. The Worldly Philosophers — the narrative backbone for the course
  • Broadie, A. The Scottish Enlightenment — intellectual context for Edinburgh’s role
  • Romer, D. Advanced Macroeconomics — reference for Solow, expectations, and growth
  • Piketty, T. Capital in the Twenty-First Century — inequality and distribution

Questions

Found an error in a notebook, or stuck on setup? Email juan.zurita@ed.ac.uk.