Economics

This course begins with the emergence of capitalism and industrialization in Europe, particularly in England, as opposed to countries like China. The first part of the course reviews and discusses the main theses that relates to given chapters in the theory of economic growth: trade and market integration, property rights and wage labor, institutions and state-building, finance, and colonialism. The second part of the course analyzes Western capitalism at its height and how it structured a new, integrated, global economy. This course also covers the issue of late industrialization and economic catch-up in the emerging economies at that time, such as Germany, before moving into the global goods and capital markets, colonization and imperialism, and the underlying fault-lines at work during the First Global Era that surfaced in the years immediately before and after World War I.

The course has four distinctive aspects. The first is a coverage of methodology and history of economic thought, which are not usually part of standard micro and macro courses. The purpose of this section is not to provide a narrative of what came before "current" economics and when, but to situate current economics historically so as to understand the context in which it emerged and its scope of application, and the institutional and political reasons for its persistence. The second aspect is a critical analysis of orthodox micro and macro theories. The purpose of this section is to examine central features of these theories, reveal their possible deficiencies, and bring out the sorts of considerations that could enhance our understanding of the economy. The third and fourth aspects of the course introduce students to two schools of thought alternative to the current orthodoxy, namely, Marxist economics and post-Keynesian economics.

This course provides a political economy perspective on the rapidly changing economy and society in contemporary China. The course focuses on the discussion how political, economic, and social forces shape socialism with Chinese characteristics. Lecture topics include the lexicon of China's political economy, population and China's power, the significance of administrative jurisdiction economy, transformation of economic development models, mobility system and citizenship, political economy concerns of urbanization, government finance and the case of infrastructure financing, inequality under welfare regime transformation, and how we understand the real China. Basic readings: Janos Kornai, THE SOCIALIST SYSTEM: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF COMMUNISM; Terry Cannon and Alan Jenkins, eds., THE GEOGRAPHY OF CONTEMPORARY CHINA: THE IMPACT OF DENG XIAOPING'S DECADE; Barry Naughton, GROWING OUT OF THE PLAN: CHINESE ECONOMIC REFORM 1978-1993; John R. Logan, THE NEW CHINESE CITY: GLOBALIZATION AND MARKET REFORM. 

This course focuses on understanding how the interconnected world economy and the global economy emerged historically and how globalization transformed economies and societies around the world. The course learns that globalization has not been a one-way street and that modern history witnessed periods of both increasing and diminishing globalization. The course provides students with the tools for understanding economic and social change in a historical and global perspective. The teaching material helps students develop critical thinking and narrative skills. The course examines how the global economy emerged in the past and how globalization transformed macro regions of the world. The first part of the course traces the connection between western expansion and the rise of the global economy from the 16th to 19th centuries and explains what factors - social, cultural, and technological - limited early globalization. The course studies how growing prosperity in Europe compared with the development of other world regions. The second part of the course discusses globalization and deglobalization in the industrial age and the shifts of global economic power they brought about. The course discusses modern economic history in a global context and focuses mainly on non-European regions. 

The course provides a study on environmental economics in order to evaluate environmental consequences of economic activity, as well as to interpret market-based instruments of environmental regulation. It examines the economics of renewable and non-renewable natural resources; concepts for the valuation of non-market amenities; environmental cost- benefit analysis; techniques of valuation of environmental impacts; and theory of optimal management of renewable and non-renewable resources. 

This course discusses theories and empirical analyses of various labor market issues. 

This course focuses on the history of economic development in East Asian countries as well as the West, covering topics including: the rise and demise of the development state and macroeconomic stability and crisis. lectures focus on the history, nature and the process of economic development and its effects in East Asia; patterns of economic development in historical perspective; determinants of growth; globalization and regionalization. Text: Dennis W. Carlton and Jeffrey M. Perloff, MODERN INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION. Assessment: class participation, midterm, and final.