POLICY AND POLITICS
INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY

CD10 Syllabus                                                                         Course Structure Index
Professor Andrew Procassini

 

Goals

 The goal of this course is to enable students to analyze the interaction of political and economic factors in the development of policies affecting international trade, foreign direct investment, technological progress, and competition involving multinational corporations.  Students will learn how to evaluate complex interactions among and between governments, industries and firms that characterize international economic relations and develop an improved ability to identify the critical policy elements affecting the international competitiveness of national industries.

Key Texts and Articles

 The required text is Readings in International Political Economy by David Balaam and Michael Veseth, 1st Edition, 1996, Prentice-Hall.

 The following texts provide supplementary material which the class members may wish to read in order to broaden their understanding of the subject:

Strange, Susan, States and Markets, 2nd edition (Pinter Publishing, 1994).

Spero, Joan Edelman, The Politics of International Economic Relations, 4th edition (St. Martins Press, 1990).

Balaam, David and Michael Veseth, Introduction to International Political Economy (Prentice Hall, 1996).

Isaak, Robert, Managing World Economic Changes, 2nd Edition (Prentice Hall, 1995).

Gilpin, R., U.S. Power and the Multinational Corporation (Princeton, 1987).

Class members are expected to read one or more of the following daily and/or weekly publications:  New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times (London), Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, Business Week, etc.  Discussions in class may center on accounts of current issues reported in these journals

Course Requirement:

Each class member will write a research paper as follows:  Describe, compare and contrast the U.S. with any one of the following countries: Japan, China, S. Korea, Germany, France, or Brazil with regard to policies and practices in the area of trade, foreign direct investment, technology and competition.  Examples using various industries may be used to illustrate different aspects of the subject.

Class Schedule

Class 1:  What is IPE:  Systems of IPE, traditional view, instructor’s view; primary structures: production, finance, knowledge, security; secondary structures: trade, transport, energy, welfare; framework for the course; discussion of syllabus and assignments.

Required Reading:  Unless otherwise indicated, the readings are from the required text:

Balaam, David and Michael Veseth, Readings in International Political Economy, 1st Edition (Prentice Hall, 1996).

Pages 1 - 53:

Articles by M. Kahler, Frederick List, James Fallows, Adam Smith, Robert Skidelsky.

Pages 64 - 84:

Articles by A.G. Frank, A. Shlector, and R.N. Vishny

Class 2:  Production: Multinational corporations; resources, capabilities, management; modes of entry, location of production, strategic alliances; business policy and public policies.  Nationality of the multinational corporation.

Required Reading:  Pages 213 - 339

Articles by Peter Drucker, William Grieder

Class 3:  International Trade: Trade theories; world trade organizations; trade policies as related to nation states; instruments of trade policies; trade and multinational corporations; trade policies related to domestic public policies, such as technology and competition.

Required Reading:  Pages 85 - 111

Articles by Peter Drucker and Karl J. Fields

Class 4:  Knowledge and Technology:  Basic, applied research; research and development; technology and commercialization; intellectual property rights; product life cycle; government support; international cooperation and conflict; relationship of technology to trade.  Competing firms and competing states.

Required Reading:  Pages 191 - 198

From the Economist, Handouts:  Tonelson, A., “The Perils of Technoglobalism” and Rodgers, T.J., “Technology Traps.”

Class 5:  Structures and Infrastructure:  Finance; transportation; energy; communication; information; enhancement institutions (health, education, welfare); security.  Relationship to production, trade, and technology 

Required Reading:  None

Class 6:  Regions and Nation-States I:  European Union/Eastern Europe/Africa.

Required Reading:  Pages 202 - 225

Article by G. Hodgson from The Economist

Class 7:  Regions and Nation-States II:  Japan, China, and the industrializing countries of Asia

Required Reading:  Pages 231 - 246, 293 - 311

Article by Takashi Moguchi from The Economist

Class 8:  North America/U.S.:  Place of U.S. in primary and secondary structures; the future: a prognosis.

            Required Reading:  Pages 408 - 418

 

OUTLINE
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