Syllabus for Economics 568 Spring 2014
Professor Edward Tower
January 13, 2014 version
Current Issues in International Trade and Economic
Development
Or informally: “Neat New Books in Trade and
Development”
Room 227A Social Sciences
919-660-1818 office phone
919-332-2264 cell phone
tower@econ.duke.edu
Class meets Tuesday and Thursday 4:40 PM-5:55 PM in 326 Allen
Building.
This course is titled “Special Topics in International Trade and Economic
Development.” I think of it as “Neat New Books in International Trade and Economic
Development. In the course we read and comment by blackboard and in class on one
book each week. All but Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations are recent. I like to close
the course with Adam Smith and ask whether we have learned anything since Smith
wrote. In addition to reading and commenting, each student is required to write a
book review for publication in a scholarly journal of a book of his or her choice. Last
time I taught the course about half of the students did publish their review in a
scholarly journal. I strongly encourage students to discuss their book with the author.
The vast majority of authors have enthusiastically worked with their student
reviewers and their alumni reviewer. If you go to the Duke Journal of Economics web
site on the Econ Dept. web site you can find the list of books they reviewed and
journals they published in.
There is lots of reading in this course. Each student is asked to write an essay on one
chapter of the book or a essay on the whole book and email it to all the students
prior to the class when we discuss that chapter. No more than one page please. This
forces you to focus on what is important.
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This semester’s readings are eclectic, covering a number of different areas. That is
intentional. I tried to find a set of books that give worthwhile insights into economics
and are written in novel ways.
Class attendance is required. Part of the grade will depend on it. If you cannot make a
class, it is important that you let me know in advance. My major goal in the course is
for you to write an excellent book review and to exhibit professionalism by finding a
suitable place to publish it in a timely fashion. I realize that some students will be
luckier than others in finding a responsible editor who responds to queries promptly
and either promptly accepts or rejects your work. A prompt rejection is a good thing
for it allows you to find another outlet while your book is still new. So the grade does
not depend on whether you find a place to publish your review. Rather it depends on
the quality of your product, your correspondence with your author and alumni
reader and your book review editor(s). I do not assign grades to your short essays.
However, emailing them on time saying something interesting in them, and coming
to class with something interesting to say is important. I will comment briefly on your
essays. The book review counts 75 percent of the grade and the combination of short
essays and class presence and class discussion counts 25 percent of the grade. In
class discussion, the important thing is to help make the class worthwhile for your
classmates.
The book list:
Writing
1.Diedre McCloskey, Economical Writing, Waveland Press, ISBN 1-57766-063-3, 2000,
paperback, 98pp., $10.49 from Amazon.
Libertarianism
2. Milton Friedman. Capitalism and Freedom. 2002. ISBN 0-226-26421-1. University of Chicago
Press. $13.68
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Development
3. Paul Holden, Sarah Holden and Malcom Bale, Swimming Against the Tide? An
Assessment of the Private Sector in the Pacific. Asian Development Bank, 2004.
174pp.
Available free at:
http://www.adb.org/Documents/Books/Swimming_Against_Tide/swimming_against
_tide.pdf
4. Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya. Why Growth Matters: How Economic Growth in
India Reduced Poverty and Lessons for Other Developing Countries. 2013.ISBN 978-1-61039272-3 Public Affairs. $14.31
5.Abhijit V. Bannerjee and Esther Duflo, Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the
Way to Fight Global Poverty. 2011. ISBN 978-1-61039-093-4. (paperback) Public
Affairs $10.87 new from Amazon. $2.95+
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6.William Easterly. The Illusive Quest for Growth: Economists’ Adventures and Misadventures in
the Tropics. 2002. ISBN 0-262-55042-3. MIT. $11.94
Inequality
7.Angus Deaton. The Great Escape: Health, Wealth and the Origins of Inequality. 2013 ISBN 9780-691-15354-4. Princeton. $19.98.
8.Edmund Phelps. Mass Flourishing: How Grassroots Innovation Created Jobs, Challenge and
Change. 2013. ISBN 978-0-691-15898-3. Harvard University Press. $18.75.
4
9.Brink Lindsey. Human Capitalism: How Economic Growth Has Made Us Smarter—and More
Unequal. Princeton. ISBN 978-0-91-15732-0. 2013. $14.95.
The Environment in History
10. Jared Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Succeed or Fail, Penguin, ISBN 0670-03337-5. 2005, 575pp. $2.82+$3.99 shipping from Amazon.
Here is an important review of Collapse by Jackson Lears, followed by really interesting
comments. (Thanks to Charlie Becker for this reference).
http://www.bookforum.com/inprint/019_04/10583
Economic History
5
11. William Bernstein. Masters of the Word. I have the draft of this book. It is to be published in
2013. Neat discussion of the role of communications on history. We will probably be talking with
Bill about a different book of his, but who knows?
Corruption
12. PECULIAR DYNAMICS OF CORRUPTION:
Religion, Gender, EU Membership, and Others
Omer Gokcekus
Kevin Bengyak
The Master
6
13. Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations [Facsimile]
[Paperback]. $6.50 second hand from Amazon. Around 1000 pages. University of Chicago Press,
0-226-76374-9.
Here is a neat web site that allows you to find the cheapest source of each book. It
was set up by two undergraduates.
http://www.campusbooks4less.com/cgibin/bookSearch/bookstoreSearch.cgi?searchBy=isbn&searchVal=061852844X&func=submit
Class Schedule:
January 2012
Th9 Introduction
Tu14 will discuss McCloskey and the Duke econ dept. writing manual. You can find
the writing manual at http://lupus.econ.duke.edu/ecoteach/undergrad/manual.pdf .
Discussion from administrator of the Alumni reader project and the writing studio.
The McCloskey book is short, so one class period should be enough. Book list of five
possible titles for review due. You might look at Amazon and at publisher’s web
pages. Please email me a list of the books you are thinking about and briefly why.
This will speed up discussion. Pick a book you think you will like. When you send
your review to the author it is nice to be able to tell him or her that you like the
book. Please email me your thoughts about the book (one page max), before noon
on Tuesday at the very latest. These can be things you think are particularly
interesting, or wrong, or related thoughts that you have.
One page comment on McCloskey due.
Th16 Book list of five possible titles for review due. Essay due on what makes a
good book review and what makes a bad one with examples from the Economist,
the Journal of Economic Literature and the New York Times. 1 page.
7
Here is an important review of one recent book. (Thanks to Charlie Becker for the reference).
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/jun/07/what-makes-countries-rich-orpoor/?pagination=false
Tu21 Friedman’s Capitalism and Friedman or one of Friedman’s other books such as
Dollars and Deficits or Money Mischief, or Friedrich Hayak’s Road to Serfdom.
Th23. Holden, Holden and Bale. This book is free on line. Available free at:
http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/4207/1/swimming_against_tide.pdf . Next class
Paul Holden will join us by Skype. He is a former PhD student of mine. His daughter,
Sarah, is a former undergrad research assistant of mine. This book gets to the heart
of practical development economics. Your assignment is to email your reaction to
part of the book prior to our discussion with him.
Please email him a question about the book the day before the class. His email is
Paul Holden <ph@erinstitute.org>
Tu 28 Skype conversation with Paul Holden
Th 30. Send corrections to Omer Gokcekus on his book on corruption.
List of journals to which you will submit your review, at least 5 with a ranking of
best to worst prospects, with a brief explanation of your choices. You need to have
examined recent journals at Bostock library.
February
Tu4 Easterly part I. Essay on the book due.
Th6 Easterly Part II. A one page outline of your review is due.
Tu11. I will break the class into 3 groups. Please sign yourself up for one group. First
group Tues 12-115, Second group Tues at 3-415, third group Wed at 440-6, The
Tuesday meeting at class time will be in our classroom. The other meetings will be in my
office. First draft of your review is due. Please bring 4 hard copies to the meeting.
Th 13. Deaton. The Great Escape. One page essay due.
Tu18 Phelps. One page essay due.
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Th21 Second draft of your review is due. Phelps
Tu25 conversations in small groups about near final drafts of your reviews.
Th27 Diamond’s Collapse. one page essay due.
March
Tu 4 Poor Economics Part I.One page essay due.
Th6 Poor Economics Part II Third draft of your review is due.
Tu11 Spring Break
Th13 Spring Break
Tu18 Bernstein Part I. We will read something he has written. Discussion of draft of
review.
Th 20 Bernstein Part II. Skype conversation with Bernstein. Second draft of your
review is due
Tu 25 Brink Lindsay part I. Email review to author for comments.
Th 28 Brink Lindsay. Part II.
April
Tu1 . Discussion of books students have reviewed Revision of your review is due in
light of author’s comments. Discussion of draft
Th3 .Discussion of books students have reviewed. Discussion of draft Review is
emailed to journal.
Tu8 Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations or Theory of Moral Sentiments (which I have
not read). One page essay on something interesting about Adam Smith.
Th10. Bhagwati and Panagariya
Please do not email review to journal until I approve the review. We do not want to
poison the well. It is important for journal editors to know we send out only the best
reviews for publication.
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Tu15. Your assignment is to find a time in history when something important
happened, and see if the reporters who covered the story got it right. The Economist.
The Times of London. The New York Times are all good sources.
Great Books of All Time. These are the books that I have used in the
past, and would be tempted to use again. Students who feel their
interests would be served by substituting reading in some of these
books for the assignments that I have listed are free to do so.
Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Robert Barro, Determinents of Economic Growth: A Cross-country Empirical Study,
Lional Robins Lecture, Paperback, 1999, second edition, MIT ISBN 0-262-52254-3. 145
pages. $12.90 from Amazon.
Alan S. Blinder. “Hard Heads, Soft Hearts: Tough Minded Economics for a
Just Society.” $4.00.
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Edward Chancellor. Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial
Speculaton. $8.92.
Russell Roberts The Choice. A nontechnical introduction to international trade
Doug Irwin, Free Trade Under Fire, Princeton University Press, 2009, 313pp.
paperback, ISBN 978-0-691-14315-6. $19.62 from Amazon A marvelous discussion of
international trade issues facing the US. The third edition is better than the other
two. Not technical.
Douglas Irwin, Trade Policy Disaster: Lessons from the 1930’s. (Ohlin lectures). $22.01
from Amazon. December 2011. ISBN-10:
0-262-01671-0 ISBN-13: 978-0-262-01671-1. MIT Press. Excellent economic history of
trade policy.
Jared Diamond. Guns, Germs and Steel. Economic prehistory. Explains why Europe
and Asia beat out Africa and the Americas in having early economic development.
Milton Friedman. Capitalism and Freedom. The best defense of the market I know.
Marvelously well written. The bible of libertarianism. $6.99
Milton Friedman, Money Mischief.
William Easterly. The Illusive Quest for Growth. A spectacular discussion of what is
wrong with economic development aid. Beautifully written.
Robert E. Anderson. Just Get out of the Way: How Government Can Help Business in
Poor Countries. $24.95. Cato Institute. 2004. On the Amazon web site some are
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available for $0.70 plus $3.99 shipping. ISBN 1-930865-54-6. Hardbound. 274pp.
Blames developing nations for their lack of economic development. My students last
year felt that the whole book could have been summarized in a journal article. But I
like it, in spite of its repetition.
……………………….
Here are some other neat books.
Michael Lewis. Boomerang: Travels in the Third World. WW Norton. ISBN 978393
08181-7. Cloth. 2011. $16.47 from Amazon. ISBN 978-4008-2986-6. $14.10 from
Amazon.
Paul Collier. “The Plundered Planet: Why we Must—and How We Can—
Manage Nature for Global Prosperity.” 249pp. ISBN 978-0-19-539525-9.
Nov 2011. $11.52.
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Jagdish N. Bhagwati, Termites in the Trading System: How Preferential Agreements
Can Undermine Free Trade, 2008, Council of Foreign Relations, $11.46 from Amazon.
ISBN 978-0-19-533165-3. 127pp
Gregory Clark, A Farewell to Alms, Princeton University Press, 2007, $18.95, $12.89
from Amazon, paperback. ISBN 978-0-19-533165-3. 418pp. Blames population
growth for low standards of living. NeoMalthusianism.
Paul Collier “The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Economies are Failing
and What Can be Done About it.” $10.21
Milton Friedman Money Mischief: Episodes in Monetary History.”$10.17
F. Hayek. The Road to Serfdom.
Alan B. Krueger. What Makes a Terrorist: Economics and the Roots of Terrorism.”
Princeton University Press, Princeton and Woodstock, UK. 2007. 14.99/$24.95.
ISBN: 978-0-691-13438-3. 194pp. $10.17 from Amazon. Not a great book. But an
interesting one, so if your fascination is with terrorism this is a good book to read.
Paul Krugman. “The Accidental Theorist and Other Dispatches from the
Dismal Science.” 1999. $4.00
Paul Krugman. “Pop Internationalism.”1996. $4.93.
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Michael Lewis, The Big Short
Stephen Parente and Edward C. Prescott. Barriers to Riches. 6.89
World Bank. The East Asian Miracle
Money Mischief by Milton Friedman. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-06078-4. (Apr
25, 2011) $23.19. 213pp. Money Mischief: Episodes in Monetary History
(Harvest Book) [Bargain Price] [Paperback]
Milton Friedman
(Author)
B000AQ23N6
4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
| Like (0)
Available from these sellers.
16 new from $6.19 28 used from $5.83
Jacob Appel and Dean Karlan More Than Good Intentions: How a New Economics is
Helping to Solve Global Poverty. Penguin. 295 pp. ISBN 1-101-46804-1. April 14, 2011.
$14.05
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6. Charles Kenny. Getting Better: Why Global Development is Succeding—And How
We Can Improve the World Even More. March 1, 2011. Basic Books. ISBN 978-0465-0215-7. 175+pp. $6.43.
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. Jack Weatherford.
2005. Paperback. $7.36 second hand from Amazon. Three River Press.
305+pp. ISBN 0-609-80964-4.
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These books might be excellent. I have not read them.
Paul Seabright. The Company of Strangers. Priinceton Univ Press. $9.94. 2010. 365+ pp.
978-0-691-14646-1.
The Squam Lake Report: Fixing the Financial System.
Kenneth R. French, Martin N. Baily, John Y. Campbell,
John H. Cochrane, Douglas W. Diamond, Darrell Duffie,
Anil K Kashyap, Frederic S. Mishkin, Raghuram G. Rajan,
David S. Scharfstein, Robert J. Shiller, Hyun Song Shin,
Matthew J. Slaughter, Jeremy C. Stein & Rene M. Stulz
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World Bank. “Doing Business 2012 (in A More Transparent World). World Bank. October 2012.
Paperback. 264pp. $35 from Amazon.
Robert H. Frank. The Darwin Economy: Liberty, Competition and the
Common Good. $15.81 from Amazon. 229pp. Princeton University Press,
2011.
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Anne Krueger’s STRUGGLING WITH SUCCESS Challenges Facing the International Economy. $56.
January 2011. She also has a new book out. I cant find it.
William W. Lewis. The Power of Productivity: Wealth, Poverty, and the
Threat to Global Stability.” 2005. $11.90. Doug Irwin suggested this when
he was visiting.
World Bank. World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and
Development.” October 2011. $50.
World Bank. World Development Report 2011: Conflict, Security, and
Development. 2011. $42.
The United Nations office in Bangkok (The Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the
Pacific) has a book review web site. Mia Mikic coordinates it. I taught with Mia at the University
of Auckland, and she generously arranged for me to teach in Croatia with her at the University
of Zagreb when she was chair of the Econ Dept there. Now she is organizing the book review
web site at Artnet (the training arm of ESCAP). A year ago, she was looking for quality reviews of
the books listed below. The link immediately below is to the review that Allison Jaros wrote of
Doug Irwin's book on the Hawley-Smoot tariff and is posted on this website. This is your chance
to improve policy making in Asia and the Pacific by transmitting important ideas to policy
makers there.
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>
> http://www.unescap.org/tid/artnet/book-reviews-list.asp
>
>
> -----Original Message----> From: Mia Mikic [mailto:mikic@un.org]
> Sent: Wednesday, November 23, 2011 4:17 AM
> To: tower@duke.edu
> Subject: RE: [1] new discussion on LinkedIn
>
> thank you Ed for thinking about our book review series, which is not flooded by submissions (is
anyone reading any longer?)
>
> I am sure you are much better informed of the new books in trade/development disciplines
but I can give you few examples (sorry for very unprofessional
> listing)
>
> Understanding Global Trade by Elhanan Helpman (Apr 25, 2011)
>
> Economic Diplomacy: Essays and Reflections by Singapore's Negotiators [Hardcover] C. L. Lim
(Author, Editor), Margaret Liang (Editor)
>
> From Financial Crisis to Global Recovery by Padma Desai (Jun 1, 2011)
>
> A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World by William J. Bernstein (May 6, 2009).
Sophie Brown is planning to review this one .
>
> American Protectionism (1898): Historical Essays on Trade Policy (Economic Ideas that Built
America) by Ugo Rabbeno and Francesca L. Viano (Jul 1,
> 2012)
>
> not directly related but surely good;
>
> The Art of Strategy: A Game Theorist's Guide to Success in Business and Life by Avinash K. Dixit
and Barry J. Nalebuff (Jan 4, 2010)
>
> More later,
>
>
> Mia Mikic, PhD
> ARTNeT Coordinator
> Trade Policy Section, United Nations ESCAP Bangkok 10200, Thailand ====================
> Ph: (66) 2 288 1410, Mob: (66) 81 720 3706
> Email: mikic@un.org
> ====================
> www.unescap.org/tid/aptiad
> www.artnetontrade.org
> Twitter@ARTNeTontrade
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Here is a new book jointly edited by my colleague at UNC, Steven Rosefielde.
Two Asias: The Emerging Postcrisis Divide by Steven Rosefielde, Masaaki Kuboniwa and
Satoshi Mizobata (Dec 15, 2011)
Buy new: $72.00
************************************************
************
Book list from Paul Holden aug 2012
Fairness and Freedom david fischer. Comparison of evolution of New Zealand and the US.
New Geography of Jobs. Enrico moretti
Tyler cowen. An economist gets lunch, the great stagnation.
Tim hardford. Adapt.
Allan Meltzer. Why capitalism
Due Dilligance David Rudland. About micro-finance
The company of stangers, a natural history of economic life. Paul seabrook.
Just get out of the way, Anderson.
The longeverty project. Howard friedman and leslie martin.
************************************************
William Bernstein. The Birth of Plenty. 403pp. 2004. 0-07-142-192-0 McGraw-Hill.
$13. Anytime except jan 23-march 1 say.
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Doing Business 2012 (in A More Transparent World. World Bank). October 2011. It
can be downloaded for free from the following web site.
http://www.doingbusiness.org/~/media/FPDKM/Doing%20Business/Documents/AnnualReports/English/DB12-FullReport.pdf
Neat new books from 2012
Tyler Cowen, The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All the Low Hanging Fruit, Got Sick, and
Will Eventually Feel Better. 109pp. $12.95 Retail. 978-0-525-95271-8. Dutton. Penguin Group.
2011. $6.89. 978-1-101-50225-9.
Tyler Cowen, An Economist Gets Lunch, $26.95 Retail. 978-0525-95266-4. 2012. 293pp
Edward Conrad, Unintended Consequences: Why Everything You’ve Been Told About the
Economy is Wrong. $27.95 Retail. 978-1-59184-550-8. $310pp.
Joseph E. Stiglitz, The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers our Future.
$27.95 retail, 414pp. 978-0—393-08869-4 WW Norton. 2012.
Michael Spence, The Next Convergence, Picador, 978-0-374-15975-7. 296pp. 2012. $17. Retail
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Ruchir Sharma. Breakout Nations: In Pursuit of the Next Economic Miracles. 978-0-393-08026-1.
$26.95 retail. Norton. $292. 2012
Allan H. Metzler. Why Capitalism? Oxford 154pp. $21.95. 978-0-19-985957-3. 2012
Justin Yifu Lin. The Quest for Prosperity: How Developing Countries Can Take Off. Princeton.
$27.95. 978-0-691-15589-0 322pp.2012.
Scott Patterson. Dark Pools: High-Speed Traders, I.I. Bandits, and the Threat to the Global
Financial System. Crown Business. 978-0-307-88717-7 355pp. $27.
Dambisa Moyo. Winner Take All; China’s Race for Resources and What It Means for the World.
Basic Books. $26.99. 978-0-02828-3 257pp. 2012.
Steven E. Landsburg. The Armchair Economist: Economics and Everyday Life. Revised and
Updated for the 21st century. Free Press. 315pp. $16. 978-1-4516-5173-7. 2012.
Paul Krugman, End This Depression Now! Norton. 259pp. 978-0-393-08877-9 $24.95 retail. 2012
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