The House of Political Economy revives the classical understanding of economics as a moral and social science. “Political economy” — the term used by Adam Smith, Matteo Liberatore, and the great economists through the end of the nineteenth century — signifies that economic inquiry cannot be divorced from questions of justice, virtue, and the common good.

Our research spans from medieval scholastic thought through the Scottish Enlightenment to contemporary economic analysis. We engage seriously with Austrian economics, classical liberalism, and Catholic social teaching. We employ both historical-philosophical methods and modern empirical techniques, believing that economic science is enriched rather than compromised by methodological pluralism.

Fellows in this house study fundamental questions: What is the nature of money and exchange? How should property be understood and organized? What are the moral limits of markets? What economic arrangements best serve the common good? These perennial questions take on new urgency amid globalization, financialization, technological disruption, and mounting government debts of historic proportions.