ECON 305 – Comparative Economic Systems
University of Nevada, Reno
TR 9:30 - 10:45 AM
AB 101
Professor P. Elliott Parker
Office: AB 401-H
Office Hours: TWR 2:00 – 2:45 PM
e-mail: eparker@unr.edu
Fall 2014 Syllabus
The website for this course is on my homepage at http://business.unr.edu/faculty/parker/econ305, and it
includes all assignments and policies. I will post grades, lecture notes, and old exams on Webcampus.
You will also be subscribed to an e-mail list, and if you have a spam feature you may need to explicitly
allow messages from this list.
Prerequisites: This course requires both ECON 102 and ECON 103, or HON 220.
Objectives and Learning Goals:
My primary learning goal in this class is to teach you about the major economies of the world. You
should emerge from this class with an understanding of how economic systems work in both theory and
practice, and how economic theory interacts with government policy, history, and culture to explain
economic performance. You should understand how our own economy emerged, and how it compares to
other major economies. You should understand the histories and workings of the former socialist
economies, and also understand the great variation among market capitalist economies.
ECON 305 currently meets the diversity requirement of the University Core Curriculum, and one
component of the diversity requirement is a rigorous writing requirement. This course will consider how
economic growth and inequality interact, and how government policies can address them. This course will
spend substantial time on the cultures and histories of non-Western economies. This course will also look
for lessons for the United States in the policies and experiences of other economies.
In the new Silver Core, this course will satisfy the following two Core Objectives:
CO10 - Diversity and Equity: Students will develop a set of cognitive, affective, and behavioral skills and
characteristics that support effective and appropriate attentiveness to and analysis of diversity and equity.
CO11 - Global Contexts: Students will apply and evaluate modes of academic inquiry, creative expression, or
results of research to problems in historical and contemporary global contexts. Students will articulate
connections among local, national, and international contexts and evaluate the ways that historical and
contemporary global influences affect their current situations.
This course will also seek to develop a discipline-specific competency in CO1 (Effective Composition &
Communication) and CO3 (Critical Analysis & Use of Information).
The Student Learning Outcomes are as follows:
 Students will demonstrate knowledge of the economic concepts important to understanding how
economies perform.
 Students will demonstrate knowledge of how economic systems affect the interaction of growth
and inequality, and how these may be affected by government policies.
 Students will demonstrate an understanding of major economic events in the major economies of
the world, both Western and non-Western, and how those events and associated government
policies in those countries were affected by history and social structure in how they altered
economic performance.
 Students will find examples of economic experiences in other countries that provide lessons for
economic policy in Nevada and the United States.
 Students will demonstrate an ability to collect, analyze and present data on economic
performance in the world’s major economies.
 Students will produce an original and well-written research paper on a general topic assigned by
the instructor.
ECON 305 Syllabus for Fall 2014
Page 2
Grading:
This course requires a significant amount of writing, and your ability to express yourself clearly in writing
will significantly affect your grade. Grading will depend on two midterms and a final, and each exam is
worth 20%. The exams will be in-class, closed-book, and challenging, including essays requiring both an
ability to express yourself in writing and a good understanding of the lectures and the assigned readings.
There are two papers, the first worth 10% and the second worth 20%, and I assign daily in-class essays at
the end of class that count for 10% of your grade. Papers will be assigned at least two weeks in advance
of their due dates, and are expected to be in formal APA academic style. More information will be on the
course website.
Books:
These books are available at the ASUN Bookstore in the Joe Crowley Student Union, or online.
 Heilbroner, R.L., & W. Milberg (2007), The Making of Economic Society, 12nd edition. PrenticeHall, paperback, required.
 Helpman, E. (2004), The Mystery of Economic Growth. Belknap Press, paperback, required.
 Baumol, W.J., R.E. Litan & C.J. Schramm (2009), Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism, and the
Economics of Growth and Prosperity. Yale University Press, paperback, recommended.
 Maddison, A. (2001), The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective. OECD, available for free
online.
See the class website for more details. Other readings may be listed in the online schedule.
Schedule:
Details of the lecture schedule and reading assignments are given on the course webpage. The first and
second exams are tentatively scheduled for September 25 and October 30. The final exam is scheduled by
the university for Tuesday, December 16, 12:30 - 2:30 PM. It is your responsibility to be in class for these
exams.
Lectures:
1. Economic Growth and Performance
1.1 Measuring Economic Growth and Performance
1.2 Markets and Government
1.3 What Makes Economies Grow?
2. Capitalism and its Alternatives
2.1 The Developing World Economy
2.2 Economic Development and Policy in Western Europe: the United Kingdom, France,
Germany, Ireland and Sweden
2.3 The United States and Western Offshoots
2.4 East Asian Capitalism: Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan
3. The Socialist Experiment:
3.1 The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe
3.2 Reform and Transition After the Collapse
3.3 China’s Development Experience
4. Economic Performance in the Rest of the World
4.1 India and other NICs
4.2 Iran and other traditionalist societies
ECON 305 Syllabus for Fall 2014
Page 3
Students with Disabilities:
Any student who qualifies with a disability is to provide his or her instructor with a letter from the
Disability Resource Center stating the appropriate accommodations for this course. If you have a
documented disability and wish to discuss how these academic accommodations will be implemented for
this course, please contact the instructor during the first two weeks of class.
Audio and Video Recording:
Surreptitious or covert video-taping of class or unauthorized audio recording of class is prohibited by law
and by Board of Regents policy. This class may be videotaped or audio recorded only with the written
permission of the instructor. In order to accommodate students with disabilities, some students may be
given permission to record class lectures and discussions. Therefore, students should understand that their
comments during class may be recorded.
Cheating:
Read the university policy on academic integrity. Misconduct incorporates both cheating and plagiarism,
and this includes both copying someone else's work as well as letting your work be copied, bringing in
notes, text messaging or taking pictures of the exam, using other people's words or ideas and passing them
off as your own, et cetera. One common example is a student who copies whole sentences and even
paragraphs from an internet source, perhaps changing a few words here and there to pretend it is
"different" somehow. Even if you then cite the source, it is still plagiarism if you do not put quote marks
around the words you borrowed.
Any cheating will be severely punished, ranging from failing the exam or assignment at a minimum to
failing the course and even expulsion from the university, in egregious cases or in cases where there is
evidence of any prior offenses. Students who are caught cheating also lose their chance at college
scholarships. I am serious as a heart attack about this. Every semester I catch somebody doing this who
then claims ignorance of what is and isn't cheating, and I am not patient with it anymore.
Academic Success Services:
Your student fees cover usage of the Math Center (784-4433), Tutoring Center (784-6801), and
University Writing Center (784-6030). These centers support your classroom learning; it is your
responsibility to take advantage of their services. Keep in mind that seeking help outside of class is the
sign of a responsible and successful student.
School and Work:
Economics is essentially about making decisions when resources are scarce, and time is often our most
scarce resource. Many of you work, but working too much while going to school makes it hard to focus
on your studies and succeed in school. A good college course should require 2-3 hours of work outside of
class for every hour in class, and some require more. The College of Business recommends that if you are
taking 15 units a semester, you should be working 10 hours or less per week. The university encourages
you to focus on your studies, and keep your work to a reasonable minimum so that you can graduate in
four years. Focusing on your studies helps you succeed academically. Of course, you may choose
differently, but unless you have superpowers or take extremely easy courses, you are setting yourself up
for lower grades, inadequate sleep, or other trouble.