General informaiton about the aims and the methodology of the course

The course focuses the main trends of the world economy in the last 30 years through an analysis of case studies at the national and macro-regional level.

It will be familiarizing with the main issues concerning the economic and social balances and unbalances connected with the globalization process.

The course will teach how to use database and other official sources to analyze the world economy. Student will be learning how to use skills and instruments permitting to capture the most relevant aspects of today's process of globalization.

Lectures includes a wide use of slides for power point presentations that will be at disposal of the students before every single lecture. According to the evolution of the Covid-19 situation, seminars with foreign guests will also be part of an approach permitting students to interact with the instructor/s, the use of media, short and long movies will be used to add some other elements to make clearer some aspects of the course.

Attending students will be requested to give a presentation on the most relevant topics of the course. Groups could be up to four members, and their presentations must be no longer than 15 minutes. According to the pandemic conditions, the presentations could be also on-line.

Exams and presentaions' evaluation:

The group presentation will receive an evaluation of 20% of final mark. The exam consists of the following sections: an individual paper of 7-8 pages double line space (15-16,000 characters, approx. 3,000 words) on a topic selected by the student and connected with the course (value 25% of final mark). The instructor must approve the proposal before starting researches. The deadline for the definition of the topic  for attending students is the 15th of November. Students must sent by email their paper no later than seven days before the date chosen for the exam. The final exam is a two hours written exam subdivided into two sections: the first part has 20 multiple-choice questions (value 15% of the final mark) and four open question the student will select among six questions (value 40% of the final mark).
Non- attending students are requested to write a paper of 15 pages (30,000 bytes, approx. 6,000 words), footnotes included, bibliography non included. The paper must be sent by email 7 days before the exam's date. The exam is a written exam based  the books by Robert Gilpin, The Challenge of Global Capitalism: The World Economy in the 21st Century, Princeton UP, 2011 (first four chapters) and  Luciano Segreto, L’economia mondiale dopo la Guerra fredda, Bologna, il Mulino, 2018

Detailed descritpion of the course

1. Introduction  
2. What do they have in common: explaining the myriad faces of globalization
3. An overview of the international economic scenario at the end of Cold War and the unexpected recovery of the US
4. Japan. The cost of the challenging US and the lost decades
5. The European Hybrid. Varieties of Capitalism in the Old Continent
6. After Saigon’s fall: the triumph of capitalism in Asia
7. B for Brazil or for bluff?
8. Russia: from socialism to authoritarian capitalism via de-industrialization?
9. India between poverty and high-tech
10. China: the new giant or the partial power?
11. Africa: not anymore the lost Continent?
12. The world of commodities: producers vs. consumers?
13. The financialization of the world economy
14. Conclusions: pandemia and the globalization process