- Docente: Michele Alacevich
- Credits: 8
- SSD: SECS-P/12
- Language: English
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
- Campus: Forli
- Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in International relations and diplomatic affairs (cod. 8783)
Learning outcomes
The course will examine the growth of the world economy in the modern era, with a special emphasis on crucial episodes such as the agrarian revolution, the industrial revolution and its ramifications, the global spread of trade and the structure of trade relations, the development of financial markets, and the divide between advanced and less development countries. By the end of the course, students will be able to discuss the main episodes and long-term dynamics in the history of the world economy, and will be conversant with fundamental scholarship in the long-term economic history of the world.
Course contents
Course contents
The course will offer a long-term view of the economic history of the world. Special emphasis will be placed on crucial episodes and developments such as the agrarian revolution, the Industrial Revolution and its ramifications, the global spread of trade and the structure of trade relations, the development of financial markets, and the divide between advanced and less developed countries.
We will also focus on major intellectual debates that have shaped recent analyses of the development of the world economy in the long term.
Learning aims
By the end of the course, you will be able to discuss the fundamental long-term developments of the world economy. You will also be able to examine critically the scholarship on economic history.
Readings/Bibliography
Mandatory readings
Ronald Findlay and Kevin H. O’Rourke (2007), Power and Plenty. Trade, War, and the World Economy in the Second Millennium, Princeton: Princeton University Press
E. A. Wrigley (1988), Continuity, Chance, and Change. The Character of the Industrial Revolution in England, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Michele Alacevich and Anna Soci (2017), A Short History of Inequality, Newcastle upon Tyne: Agenda Publishing
Additional mandatory readings to be discussed in class
Eric Helleiner, The Status Quo Crisis, Oxford University Press, 2014
Barry Eichengreen, Exorbitant Privilege, Oxford University Press, 2011
Barry Eichengreen et al, How Global Currencies Work, Princeton University Press, 2018
Dany Rodrik, Straight Talk on Trade, Princeton University Press, 2018
Branko Milanovic, Global Inequality, Harvard University Press, 2016
Robert Bates, The Development Dilemma, Princeton University Press, 2017
Joseph Stiglitz, Globalization and Its Discontents Revisited, New Edition, Penguin, 2017
James Scott, Against the Grain, Yale University Press, 2017
Quinn Slobodian, Globalists, Harvard University Press, 2018
Samuel Moyn, Not Enough. Human Rights in an Unequal World, Harvard University Press, 2018
David Engerman, The Price of Aid, Harvard University Press, 2018
Mark Mazower, Governing the World, Penguin, 2012
Gideon Rachman, Easternisation, Penguin, 2017
Jason Hickel, The Divide, Heinemann, 2017
Teaching methods
Lectures and class discussion. Depending on the number of students attending the course, class presentations by students on specific topics may be organized, in consultation with the instructor.
Assessment methods
Prerequisites
As this is a post-graduate course, you are expected to be conversant with the economic history of the world from ancient times to the present. You can use:
Rondo Cameron and Larry Neal (2015), A Concise Economic History of the World, New York: Oxford University Press
Final exam
Grades will be assigned based on an oral exam aimed at evaluating your ability to explain and critically discuss the facts and analytical questions examined during the class lectures and in the bibliographic references. Preparation for the exam will be based on (I) the mandatory readings, (II) your class notes of topics not covered by the readings, and, if applicable, (III) your class presentation and participation in class discussion.
Office hours
See the website of Michele Alacevich