Student guide Facoltà di Economia A.A. 2007/08

The course intends to provide a global, inter-disciplinary and cross-cultural understanding of the economic realities and to enhance critical and comparative thinking of the students.

1.        Introduction

1.1.     The economic systems: terms, concept and attributes

1.2.     Possibilities and limits of comparative approach to economic systems

2.        Selected system survey: China and India

2.1.     Overview of China’s economy and society

2.2.     Overview of India’s economy and society

2.3.     Chinese and Indian economic systems: similarities and differences

2.4.     The role of China and India in global economy and world affairs

2.5.     Problems, challenges and future prospects of China and India

3.        Global thematic comparison: selected performance survey of India, China and other emerging economies

3.1.     Economic sustainability (growth, competitiveness, economic freedom…)

3.2.     Social sustainability (human development index, genuine progress indicators…)

3.3.    Environmental sustainability (ecological footprint of nations, living planet index, environmental sustainability index…)

4.        Next economy: strategic foresight exercise

Written work (home assignment) during the course and an oral exam at the end.

Basu, K., India’s Emerging Economy: Performace and Prospects in the 1990s and Beyond, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Press, Cambridge (USA), 2004

Djankov, S., Glaeser, E., La porta, R., Lopez-de-Silans, F. & Schleifer, A.,”The new comparative economics”, Journal of Comparative Economics, 31, Elsevier, 2003 (www.elsevier.com/locate/jce)

Friedman, E., & Gilley, B., Asia’s Giants: Comparing China and India, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005

Gregory, P.R., & Stuart, R.C., Comparative Economic Systems, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999 (6th edition).

Pant, D.R. “On China’s villages, rural industries and technological development”, in: J.B. Greenberg & T. K. Park (eds), the Journal of Political Ecology, vol. VII, University of Arizona, USA,1999 (www.library.arizona.edu/ej/jpe)

Pant, D.R.: Two Decades of International Investment in the People's Republic of China, LIUC Paper No. 62, Università Carlo Cattaneo, Castellanza (VA), Italy 1999 (http://www.biblio.liuc.it:8080/biblio/liucpap/)

Reports of World Bank, IMF, UNDP, UNEP, Yale Univ. Env. Policy and Law Center, American Enterprise Institute, WTO, World Economic Forum, Worldwatch Institute, Asian Development Bank