History of Modern Economic Growth: Exploring China From a Comparative Perspective

Catalog description

This course has two goals: 1) to provide an understanding of economic development and growth with applications to the Chinese economy and Chinese institutions, and (2) to learn how to analyse major policies in China's economic development in both oral and written form. China has experienced rapid institutional changes and achieved high growth rates. We start with (i) the pre-modern and early-modern historical background of this transition process and then move on to analyse (ii) the roots and pattern of economic growth in modern China. Topics include: The great divergence between poor and rich countries; introduction to global economic history; why the industrial revolution did not take place in China's Yangtze River Delta first; economic catch up by the rest of the West; state-led big push industrialization; the ancient Chinese economy's high-level equilibrium trap; the Needham Question; the Chinese economy prior to 1949; modern China's early reform era 1949-78; the developmental state; market transition post-1978; modern Chinese growth and structural change. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: CORE SSPC or IPC; Economics elective; GCS elective The Politics, Economy, and Environment of China; Social Science Focus Political Economy 200 level course.