Political economy
Political economy is the interdisciplinary study that combines economics, law, and political science in explaining how political institutions, the political environment, and the economic system (capitalist, socialist, mixed) influence each other. It studies questions such as how monopoly, rent-seeking behaviour, and externalities should impact government policy. Historians have employed "political economy" to explore the ways in the past that persons and groups with common economic interests have used politics to effect changes beneficial to their interests.