Modern economics has entered an era of profound conceptual, methodological and structural transformation driven by globalisation, digitalisation, climate change, demographic shifts and the steady integration of behavioural and computational sciences. This review synthesises these developments and critically evaluates the reshaping of macroeconomic, microeconomic, development, behavioural and ecological paradigms. By analysing the evolution of economic thought from post-war orthodoxy to 21st-century multi-disciplinary frameworks, the review highlights the inadequacy of conventional equilibrium-based models in capturing real-world complexity. It further explores how data-driven research design, machine learning, financial innovation, geopolitical turbulence and sustainability imperatives are influencing the discipline’s trajectory. The paper concludes that modern economics is progressing toward a pluralistic, adaptive and empirically grounded discipline, better equipped to manage uncertainty, inequality, technological disruption and planetary limits.
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