East Asian Economic Development

Instructor:	Satya Gabriel
Email:	sgabriel at mtholyoke.edu
Office Hours:	MW 1-3PM
Class Days/Time:	MWF 10-10:50
Classroom:	Skinner 202

Faculty Web Page:

Click Here for S. J. Gabriel Home Page

Course Description

This course provides an overview of economic development in East Asia. The complex interplay of public policy, global competition, and domestic economic relationships in China, Japan, and Korea will serve as the core subject matter of the course, though patterns of economic development in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Viet Nam will also be discussed. Special attention is given to conditions under which regional economies have successfully blended elements of import-substituting industrialization with export-oriented growth. A common philosophical approach to development, which is described in the course as .modernist. is described and discussed, demonstrating the key role that this particular philosophical orientation has played in driving a technologically focused and state-centered approach to economic growth and development in all of the successful East Asian models.

Course Goals and Student Learning Objectives

• Gain an understanding of the factors driving economic development in East Asia
• Develop the basic theoretical foundations for rapid economic growth in East Asia
• Gain familiarity with the institutional context of regional integration in East Asia
• Become comfortable engaging in discussion and debate the forces shaping rapid economic growth in East Asia and the reasons this region has become the most dynamic, in economic terms, on the planet.

Required Texts/Readings

Textbook

Ha-Joon Chang, The East Asian Development Experience: The Miracle, the Crisis and the Future.
Indermit Gill and Homi Kharas, An East Asian Renaissance
Meredith Woo-Cumings, The Developmental State

Classroom Protocol

Students are expected to attend each and every class meeting and to arrive in class on time. Turn off cell phones and close notebook computers during the lectures. Students should be prepared to answer questions in class and responses will contribute (positively or negatively) to final grades.

Grading Policy

· Course grades will be based on the total accumulation of points from three sources: oral answers to questions during the normal course time (students should treat such questions as an oral examination) or, alternatively, class notes (properly revised and typed), quizzes, and the final examination. 
Students will have at least two methods for qualifying out of taking the final examination (by accumulating 80% of their quiz scores as "perfect scores" and/or having the top compilation of class notes). Please note that class notes must be turned in twice, first half notes are due prior to spring break and complete notes are due prior to the last day of classes. Notes will be evaluated and assigned a numerical score on both occasions with the total accumulation of points determining the "top compilation."

· In-class questions -- 10 percent of the final grade 

· Weekly quizzes -- 70 percent of the final grade 

· Final Examination -- 20 percent of the final grade  (some students will test out of taking the final examination based upon performance in weekly quizzes)

Calendar

Feb. 7-11: Read intro Ha-Joon Chang. Quiz No. 1 will be on Feb. 11th.

Feb. 14-18: Read chapters 1 and 2 of Ha-Joon Chang

Feb. 21-25: Read chapters 3 and 4 of Ha-Joon Chang. Quiz No. 2 will be on Feb. 25th.

Feb. 28-March 4: Read chapters 5 and 6 of Ha-Joon Chang. Quiz No. 3 will be on March 4th.

March 7-11: Read Part IV (chapters 7-9) of Ha-Joon Chang. No quiz this week. However, notes are due on March 11th. No extensions will be granted under any circumstances. The student with the best notes will receive both an "A" and a significant bonus.

March 21-25: Read chapters 1 "Growth, Gravity, and Friction" and 2 "Trade" of Indermit Gill and Homi Kharas, An East Asian Renaissance, available for free online.

March 28-April 1: Read Chapters 3 "Innovation" and chapter 4 "Finance" of Gill and Kharas (see above).

April 4-8: Read chapters 5 "Cities," chapter 6 "Cohesion," and chapter 7 "Corruption" of Gill and Kharas.

April 11-15: Read Meredith Woo-Cumings' "Introduction: Chalmers Johnson and the Politics of Nationalism and Development," Chalmers Johnson's "The Developmental State: Odyssey of a Concept," and Bruce Cumings' "Webs with No Spiders, Spiders with No Webs: The Geneology of the Developmental State," in The Developmental State edited by Meredith Woo-Cumings (henceforth referred to as TDS).

April 18-22: Read Atul Kohli's "Where Do High-Growth Political Economies Come From? The Japanese Lineage of Korea's 'Developmental State'," T. J. Pempel's "The Developmental Regime in a Changing World Economy," and Ha-Joon Chang's "The Economic Theory of the Developmental State" in TDS.

April 25-29: Read Juhana Vartiainen's "The Economics of Successful State Intervention in Industrial Transformation," in TDS, and Satya Gabriel's "East Asian Economic Development and Overdetermination" (to be provided as pdf on ELLA).

May 2nd: Review and Conclusions Session.