Economies in Transition and Development

3 units

This course examines transition and development in world economies experiencing unprecedented change. In the course we'll cover the main episodes and events in the development of the world economy in the past 300 years, split into two main parts. The first part will be about the development of the Western world, beginning at the time of the Malthusian era, moving on to the take-off of growth in the Industrial Revolution and the Great Divergence in living standards that followed, ending with the Golden Era of the 1950s and 1960s and the challenges faced at the start of the 21stCentury. The second main part of the course will cover the histories of other major regions - the Soviet Union, Asia, Latin America and Africa as they catch up, fall behind, and converge with the lead established by the West. This course will consider the economic history of what happened as well as touch on theories of why these events happened and how we can use these economic history lessons going forward.