Contemporarily, political economy refers to different, but related, approaches to studying economic and political behaviors, ranging from the combining of economics with other fields, to the using of different, fundamental assumptions that challenge orthodox economic assumptions:
๏ Political economy most commonly refers to interdisciplinary studies drawing upon economics, law and political science in explaining how political institutions, the political environment, and the economic system – capitalist, socialist, mixed – influence each other. When narrowly construed, it refers to applied topics in economics implicating public policy, such as monopoly, market protection, and government fiscal 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.
๏ International Political Economy (IPE) is an interdisciplinary field comprising approaches to international trade and finance, and state policies affecting international trade. i.e. monetary and fiscal policies.