political economy vs economics

political economy and economics both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
political economy	Yes	No	No	No
economics	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, political economy and economics are synonyms defined as:

political economy and economics: the branch of social science that deals with the production and distribution and consumption of goods and services and their management

Other synonyms of political economy include economic science.

political economy (noun)	economics (noun)
the branch of social science that deals with the production and distribution and consumption of goods and services and their management	the branch of social science that deals with the production and distribution and consumption of goods and services and their management