Unit information: Comparative and International Political Economy in 2020/21

Unit name	Comparative and International Political Economy
Unit code	POLI20012
Credit points	20
Level of study	I/5
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Dr. Mircea Popa
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies
Faculty	Faculty of Social Sciences and Law

Description including Unit Aims

The unit aims to equip students with a basic understanding of the interactions between politics and the economy, from a domestic and international perspective. The unit assumes no prior knowledge of economics, and does not employ any mathematical modelling. Given the novelty of some of the topics, a very gentle introduction will be provided. The broad topics to be covered include the political aspects of:

• the regulation of markets and businesses,
• the redistribution of income,
• international trade,
• international financial flows,
• economic growth.

The unit aims are:

• Providing politics students with a set of skills often explicitly required by employers in the public and private sector.
• Making students comfortable with the basic debates in political economy.
• Providing students with an understanding of the fundamentally political nature of some topics in economics.

Intended Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the unit, students will be able to:

- Employ the basic tools of economics to analyse policymaking.
- Evaluate the need for market regulation by governments in particular cases.
- Evaluate the distributional effects of taxing and spending policies as well as the political implications of these effects.
- Evaluate the distributional effects of international trade as well as the political implications of these effects.
- Assess the political implications of international financial flows.

Teaching Information

The unit will be taught through blended learning methods, including a mix of synchronous and asynchronous teaching activities

Assessment Information

• 1000 word essay (25%)
• 3000 word essay (75%)

Both essays assess all learning outcomes listed above.

Reading and References

Oatley, Thomas. 2018. International Political Economy. Routlege (Older editions are generally fine).

Frieden, Jeffry, David Lake, and J. Lawrence Broz, eds. 2017. International Political Economy: Perspectives on Global Power and Wealth. WW Norton. (We need the latest edition for this one.)

Agemoglu, Daron, and James Robinson, 2013. Why Nations Fail. Crown Business.

Piketty, Thomas. 2014. Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Harvard University Press.

Rivoli, Pietra. 2014. The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy. Wiley.