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ECON 360 |
Comparative Economic Systems |
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St. Cloud State University |
Professor King Banaian |
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Fall 2009 |
SH
386A, office phone 308-4797 |
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Office Hours: MW 9:30-11:30, T 2-3 |
Real and ideal economic
systems including capitalism, socialism, and communism.
This course is
designed to be a discussion of the different ways societies organize to advance
from subsistence to a better material life.
Historically mankind lived at a subsistence level from the start of
human history until approximately 250 years ago. Since then there has been a rapid increase in
living standards, more in the West than elsewhere. Comparing those countries that achieved that
breakthrough and those that did not will make up the majority of the work in
this course.
Mancur Olson, Power and Prosperity. (Basic Books, 2000.)
Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw, The Commanding Heights. (Simon and Schuster, 2002.)
Douglas North, Understanding the Process of Economic Change. (Princeton Univ. Press, 2005.)
All books available at campus bookstores and through other booksellers on the internet and through bookstores.
There will be much reading and writing in this course. If you are looking for an easy upper division course, this is not the one for you. Be prepared to take time to read and write!
· Midterm Exam – 25% of grade, to be held October 20.
· Final Exam – 35% of grade, to be held Thursday December 17 at 10:15am in this classroom.
· Reaction papers – 15% of grade to three reactions to readings or lectures to be offered in class. First one will be given in class today, the first class day. If you miss the class, you miss that offering. There are at least six such reactions offered; you need only do three. You are welcome to do more than three, in which case I will give you your three highest scores. These are the easiest points in the course.
· Book review – 25% of grade. The books on the last page are all available via Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders or other such booksellers. I expect you to write a 6-8 page, double-spaced review of the book. Grades for both reaction papers and the book review depend both on form and content. Marking sheets (what I use to determine paper grades) will be distributed after the first reaction paper.
· There is no attendance policy. However, missing class is a surefire way to do poorly on exams.
NOTE: The readings below contain hyperlinks that will allow you to retrieve materials over the internet. All links were good as of 8/26/2008. Please email me with any links that you think have gone dead. In many cases you are getting access through licenses purchased by the campus and thus need to log into your Huskynet account to be able to use the links provided. All readings are required unless otherwise noted as “recommended.” Those I will lecture from, but not test on.
This list may change with little notice – particularly the portion after the midterm – so please return to this page frequently on the website.
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Week of (set on Tuesday) |
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August 25 |
ü Leonard Read, I, Pencil. ü Russell Roberts, A Marvel of Cooperation. The Library of Economics and Liberty, 2005. |
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September 1 |
ü Michael Kremer, “Population Growth and Technological Change: One Million B.C. to 1990.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 108 (December 1993). ü Julian Simon, “Is Population Growth a Drag on Economic Development?” adapted from Cato Policy Report, 1995. |
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September 8 |
ü Richard Posner, “A Theory of Primitive Society, with Special Reference to Law.” Journal of Law and Economics 23 (April 1980.) ü Olson, Chapter 1 ü Podcast with Bruce Bueno de Mesquita (recommended) |
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September 15 |
ü Olson, Chapters 2-3. ü Jack Hirshleifer, “The Dark Side of the Force.” Economic Inquiry 32, March 1994. |
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September 22 |
ü Olson, Chapter 4. ü North, Chapters 1-3. Instructor will be traveling this week; assignments will be given in class. North reading is to give you time to read PLEASE NOTE: The following
videos are being used this week: Tuesday, Sept. 22: Douglas North at the
National University of Singapore, 2008. Thursday, Sept. 24: The Commanding Heights, Volume I, Chapters 1-10. (You will see that if you have a fast broadband connection you can play these on a computer for yourself for review later on.) |
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September 29 |
ü Olson, Chapter 5 There is NO CLASS on Sept. 29; I will lecture on Oct. 1. |
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October 6 |
ü North Chapters 4-6. I will actually lecture the first half of the North book this week. |
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October 13 |
ü Anver Greif, Commitment, Coercion and Markets, The Nature and Dynamics of Institutions Supporting Exchange. In Ménard and Shirley, Handbook of New Institutional Economics, Springer, 2005. ü Yergin, Introduction |
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October 20 |
MIDTERM EXAM. Covers Olson chapters 1-5, North Chapters 1-3, and readings by Read, Roberts, Kremer, Simons, Posner, Hirshleifer, and Greif. Note there is no class on Thursday this week due to fall break. |
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October 28 |
ü Yergin, Chapters 1-2. ü Olson, Chapter 6 ü Buchanan and Wagner, Democracy in Deficit, Chapter 3 |
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November 4 |
ü Yergin, Chapters 3-4. ü Olson, Chapter 7. |
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November 11 |
ü Yergin, Chapters 5-6. |
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November 18 |
ü Yergin, Chapters 7-8. ü Olson, Chapters 8-9. |
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November 25 |
ü Yergin, Chapters 9-10. ü Olson, Chapter 10. ü North, Chapters 7-9. |
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December 2 |
ü Yergin, Chapters 11-12. ü North, Chapters 10-11 |
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December 9 |
ü Yergin, Chapters 13-14. ü The rest of the North book. |
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December 16 |
FINAL EXAM at 10:15 am |
BOOK LIST FOR REVIEWS: You are responsible for finding your own book. More than one student may do any of these books, but I want to know which title by November 4, at which time you will assure me that you have located a copy of that book.
Aslund, Anders. How Capitalism Was Built. 2007.
Ayittey, George. Africa Betrayed. 1992.
Bernstein, William J. The Birth of Plenty. 2004.
De Soto, Hernando. The Mystery of Capital. 2003.
Gavron, Daniel. The Kibbutz. 2000.
Kuran, Timur. Islam and Mammon. The Economic Predicament of Islamism. 2004.
Landes, David. The Wealth and Poverty of Nations. 1999.
Rand, Ayn. Atlas Shrugged.