Abstract: This article introduces the phases and practices of econo-literary criticism over the years to argue for the interdisciplinary studies of literature and economics. By explicating the fruitful research on Shakespearean works from the different perspectives of econo-literary criticism, it argues that this critical practice, through examining texts for their embedded economic forms, contents and contexts, can furnish new perspectives on literary texts as well as cultural and economic history, which, in turn, benefits the research of economics, whose innate ethic deficiencies are growingly felt recently.

Key words: literature and economics, new economic criticism, econo-literary criticism, Shakespearean drama