NOTE: This FYS counts towards an Economics major, but students must still take ECON 001 to qualify for further work in the Economics Department.

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1 First-Year Seminar Emerging Market Economies: The BRICs Department of Economics Swarthmore College Professor Steve O Connell Spring 2012, TTh 11:20-12:35 Kohlberg 205, x8107 Office hours TBA INTRODUCTION: By some accounts, Brazil, Russia, India and China will be the dominant economies in the world by We study the economic trajectories of these countries from roughly 1900, emphasizing the roles of domestic reforms and interactions with global markets in the period since 1960 in spurring human capital accumulation, industrial development, and economic growth. We examine the potential limits on stability and growth in the BRICs and the influence these countries are likely to exert on the global governance of trade, aid, finance, and the environment. No prerequisites. NOTE: This FYS counts towards an Economics major, but students must still take ECON 001 to qualify for further work in the Economics Department. OBJECTIVES: Facility reading and writing in the social sciences; knowledge of the contemporary economic histories of the BRICS; an understanding of basic growth theory, growth accounting, the collective action problem, the political economy of economic reform, and the roles of global economic institutions. REQUIRED TEXTS: Books not available on ebrary via Tripod are in the bookstore. Additional required readings will be on the Moodle site. Olson, Mancur (2000) Power and Prosperity: Outgrowing Communist and Capitalist Dictatorships New York: Basic Books Aslund, Anders (2007) Russia's Capitalist Revolution: Why Market Reform Succeeded and Democracy Failed Washington, DC : Peterson Institute for International Economics [ebrary] Panagariya, Arvind (2008) India: The Emerging Giant (Oxford: Oxford University Press) Naughton, Barry (2007) The Chinese Economy: Transitions and Growth Cambridge, MA: MIT Press Roett, Riordan (2010) The New Brazil Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution [ebrary] COURSE POLICIES: Attendance: Attendance and participation are required; this is a seminar, where we all depend on each other. Assignments: You are responsible for doing assigned readings before they are discussed in the seminar. There will be a sequence of short written assignments totaling roughly 20 pages over the course of the semester, at least one of which will be presented to the seminar for discussion. There will be an in-class midterm exam. Grading: Class participation and presentations 25%, midterm exam 30%, written assignments 45%. Make-up exams: Scheduling conflicts must be worked out in advance. Any make-up granted within a week of the exam requires an emergency or medical excuse certified by the Dean s office or Worth Health Center. Late term papers: Your grade on required assignments drops by 1/3 of a grade if the assignment is late, and by an additional 1/3 of a grade for every additional 2 days it is late. Plagiarism: Plagiarism is defined as passing off the work of others as your own. It is a very serious form of academic misconduct. It is easy to avoid, not by ignoring the work of others but by citing it whenever you use it. For instructions on avoiding plagiarism see Referencing Source Material and Avoiding Plagiarism in Economics under the Classes link on my web page. 1

2 Weekly syllabus [NOTE: Assignments will be described separately] Required readings are marked [*]; those outside of the required texts will be available on the moodle site [m] or via the indicated links. Readings in small font are optional supplementary materials and will not necessarily be readily available. Week 1 [Jan 16-20] Introduction Tuesday: The BRICs *O Neill, Jim (2001) Building Better Global Economic BRICs Goldman Sachs Global Economics Paper No. 66, November 30 [m] Thursday: Primary education, globally and historically in the BRICs *Easterlin, Richard (1981) Why Isn t the Whole World Developed? Journal of Economic History [m] *Chaudhury, Latika, Aldo Musacchio, Steven Nafziger, and Se Yan (2011), Big BRICs, Weak Foundations: The Beginning of Public Elementary Education in Brazil, Russia, India and China, [m] Note: skim this paper with a focus on the historical context. Week 2 [Jan 23-27] Economic growth Tuesday: Accounting for growth. Writing assignment #1 due in class *Wilson, Dominic and Roopa Purushothaman (2003) Dreaming With BRICs: The Path to 2050 Goldman Sachs Global Economics Paper No. 99, October 1 [m] Thursday: Explaining growth *Jones, Charles, Introduction to Economic Growth, chapter 7: Infrastructure and Long-Run Economic Performance [m] Week 3 [Jan 30-Feb 3] The collective action problem *Olson (2000), Power and Prosperity, chapters 1-5. Week 4 [Feb 6-10] Power and prosperity *Olson (2000), Power and Prosperity, chapters 6-end. North, Douglass (1990) Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Week 5 [Feb 13-17] Russia 1 Tuesday: Historical background. Writing assignment #2 due in class *Gerschenkron, Alexander Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective [m] *Gerschenkron, Alexander Russia: Patterns and Problems of Economic Development, [m] [both of these readings are in his (1962) Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University.] Thursday: Backwardness revisited *Cooper, Julian (2006), Of BRICs and Brains: Comparing Russia with China, India, and Other Populous Emerging Economies Eurasian Geography and Economics 47(3): [m] *Freeland, Chrystia, (2011), The Next Russian Revolution The Atlantic, October. Goldman, Marshall I (2003) The Piratization of Russia: Russian Reform Goes Awry London and New York: Routledge. Week 6 [Feb 20-24] Russia 2 Assignment #3: Student Presentations on Tuesday and Thursday Tuesday: 2

3 *Aslund (2007), Russia's Capitalist Revolution: Why Market Reform Succeeded and Democracy Failed, Introduction, Chapter 1 (Perestroika The Great Awakening: ), and Chapter 8 (Conclusions: Why Market Reform Succeeded and Democracy Failed) Thursday: *Aslund (2007), chapters 2-7. MacFarlane, Neil (2006) The R in BRICs: Is Russia an Emerging Power? International Affairs 82(1): Week 7 [Feb 27-Mar 2] China 1 Tuesday: Historical background and the socialist period *Naughton (2007), The Chinese Economy: Transitions and Growth. chapters 2 and 3 Thursday: Thurs Mar 1: MIDTERM EXAM, in class, covering weeks 1-6. Bardhan, Pranab K (2010) Awakening Giants, Feet of Clay: Assessing the Economic Rise of China and India Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press Weber, Max (1968 [1925]) Domination and Legitimacy Chapter X in volume 3 of Economy and Society , and chapter XII, Patriarchalism and Patrimonialism , especially section 14. The Chinese Empire SPRING BREAK: WEEK OF MARCH 5 Week 8 [Mar 12-16] China 2 Tuesday: Two generations of economic reform, and 1992-present *Naughton (2007), The Chinese Economy: Transitions and Growth, chapters 4, 5 and 12 Thursday: Learning from reform Thurs Mar 15: 1-paragraph term paper proposal due in class. *Rawski, Thomas (1999), Reforming China s Economy: What Have We Learned? The China Journal 41, January: [m] *Woo, Wing Thye (1999), The Real Reasons for China s Growth The China Journal 41, January: [m] Week 9 [Mar 19-23] Transformation, inequality, and stability Tuesday: China today *Subramanian, Arvind (2011), The Inevitable Superpower: Why China s Dominance is a Sure Thing Foreign Affairs 90(5), September/October: *Babones, Salvatore (2011), The Middling Kingdom: The Hype and Reality of China s Rise Foreign Affairs 90(5), September-October: *Naughton (2007), The Chinese Economy: Transitions and Growth, chapters 16 and 17 Thursday: Distributional correlates of transition *Ravallion, Martin (2009) A Comparative Perspective on Poverty Reduction in Brazil, China and India Policy Research Working Paper Washington, DC: The World Bank [m] *Galbraith, James K., Ludmila Krytynsaia, and Qifei Wang (2004), The Experience of Rising Inequality in Russia and China during the Transition European Journal of Comparative Economics 1(1): [m] Ikenberry, G. John 2008 The Rise of China and the Future of the West: Can the Liberal System Survive? Foreign Affairs January/February Week 10 [Mar 26-30] India 1 Tues Mar 27: Outline and annotated bibliography due in class. * Panagariya, Arvind (2008) India: The Emerging Giant Oxford: Oxford University Press, Parts I (Growth and Economic Reform) and II (Poverty, Inequality, and Economic Reforms). 3

4 Bardhan, Pranab (1998) The Political Economy of Development in India (Expanded Edition with an Epilogue on the Political Economy of Reform in India) Delhi: Oxford University Press [out of print: a copy is on the moodle site] Week 11 [Apr 2-6] India 2 * Panagariya, Arvind (2008) India: The Emerging Giant Oxford: Oxford University Press, Parts III-end. Week 12 [Apr 9-13] Brazil 1 by Tues Mar 27 (optional): Take your draft in to be WAed. *Skidmore, Thomas E., Peter H. Smith and James N. Green (2010) Brazil: The Awakening Giant in Modern Latin America New York: Oxford University Press: [m] *Roett, Riordan (2010) The New Brazil Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution Week 13 [Apr 16-20] Brazil 2 *Brainard, Lael and Leonardo Martinez-Diaz 2009 Brazil: The B Belongs in the BRICS in Brainard, Lael and Leonardo Martinez-Diaz, eds, Brazil as an Economic Superpower? Understanding Brazil s Changing Role in the Global Economy Brookings Institution Press: 1-16 [ebrary] Thurs Apr 19: Term paper due in class. Week 14 [Apr 23-27] Student term paper presentations 4

5 Subject to revision. This version January 13,