B028888 - CHALLENGES IN A GLOBAL ECONOMY

The course is in English

The course focuses the main trends of the world economy in the last 30 years through an analysis of case studies at the national and macro-regional level

Attending students: students have to rely on the notes taken in class and the slides prepared by the instructor. Readings, other material (for instance the topic for the group presentations) will be put at disposal at the beginning of the course, and visible on the Moodle platform of the course, which is accessible only to attending students.

Non-attending students:1) Robert Gilpin, The Challenge of Global Capitalism: The World Economy in the 21st Century, Princeton UP, 2011 (first four chapters)
2) Luciano Segreto, L'economia mondiale dopo la Guerra fredda, Bologna, il Mulino, 2018

Familiarize with the main issues concerning the economic and social balances and unbalances connected with the globalization process.
The course will teach how to use database and other official sources to analyze the world economy. Student will be learning how to use skills and instruments permitting to capture the most relevant aspects of today's process of globalization.

Knowledge of contemporary history and the history of international relations for the period following Cold War; basic knowledge of international economics and the theory of international relations. Students will be offered the opportunity to intervene during the course through question time and class-presentations that will be later discussed and evaluated together by the instructor and the students. This phase of the knowledge and comprehension process will enhance also the capacity to organize presentations and to speak in public.

Lectures includes a wide use of slides for power point presentations that will be at disposal of the students before every single lecture. Seminars with foreign guests will also be part of an approach permitting students to interact with the instructor/s, the use of media, short and long movies will be used to add some other elements to make clearer some aspects of the course

Attending students will be requested to give a team presentation one of the most relevant topics of the course. The instructor will provide the themes. The deadline for the definition of the topic for attending students is the 10th of October. Groups could be up to four members, and their presentations must be no longer than 15 minutes. According to the pandemic conditions, the presentations could be also on-line.
Attending students are also requested to write a short paper (7-8 pages) on a topic connected with the main issues of the course. The precise topic must get the approval of the instructor before starting the research. The paper must be sent by email 7 days before the date chosen for the written exam.

The group presentation will receive an evaluation of 20% of final mark. The exam consists of the following sections: an individual paper of 7-8 pages double line space (15-16,000 characters, approx. 3,000 words) on a topic selected by the student and connected with the course (value 25% of final mark). The instructor must approve the proposal before starting researches. Students must send by email their paper no later than seven days before the date chosen for the exam. The final exam is a two hours written exam divided into two sections: the first part has 20 multiple-choice questions (value 15% of the final mark) and four open questions the student will select among six questions (value 40% of the final mark).
Non-attending students are requested to write a paper of 15 pages (30,000 bytes, approx. 6,000 words), footnotes included, bibliography non included. The paper must be sent by email 7 days before the exam's date. The exam is a written exam based  on the books by Robert Gilpin, The Challenge of Global Capitalism: The World Economy in the 21st Century, Princeton UP, 2011 (first four chapters) and Luciano Segreto, L'economia mondiale dopo la Guerra fredda, Bologna, il Mulino, 2018. For those who cannot fluently read Italian the second text is John Ravenhill, Global Political Economy, Oxford UP, 2011

1. Introduction
2. What do they have in common: explaining the myriad faces of globalization
3. An overview of the international economic scenario at the end of Cold War and the unexpected recovery of the US
4. Japan. The cost of the challenging US and the lost decades
5. The European Hybrid. Varieties of Capitalism in the Old Continent
6. After Saigon's fall: the triumph of capitalism in Asia
7. B for Brazil or for bluff?
8. Russia: from socialism to authoritarian capitalism via de-industrialization?
9. India between poverty and high-tech
10. China: the new giant or the partial power?
11. Africa: not anymore the lost Continent?
12. The world of commodities: producers vs. consumers?
13. The financialization of the world economy
14. Conclusions: pandemia and the globalization process