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World Economy

Module Code: EC402B

Module Title: World Economy

  • ECTS Weighting: 10
  • Semester/Term Taught: Michaelmas Term
  • Contact Hours: 22 hours of lectures and 5 hours of tutorials
  • Module Personnel: Lecturer - Professor Ronan Lyons

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

  • Outline the development of the world economy to the early 1900s
  • Explain the causes and consequences of flows of goods and factors, and of political economy and trade policy in the 19th Century world economy

Module Content

The module will focus on the history of the world economy. The aim is to look at the global economy as whole and how it developed from pre-industrial times to the early 1900s. The world economy, particularly the period leading up to World War I, provides a rich environment in which to examine economic questions such as the link between politics, technology and globalization. The course also examines the impact of the flows of goods, capital and labour associated with globalization, themes of interest to this day. It concludes by looking at the deglobalization experienced in the Interwar years and the concurrent Great Depression.
The module comprises five two-week topics:

  • Mongols & Plagues: The world economy before Magellan
  • Slaves & Sugar: The world of empire and Industrial Revolution
  • Migration & Steamships: Nineteenth century globalization
  • Backlash & War: The lead-up to the Great War
  • Deflation & Depression: The interwar world economy

Recommended Reading List

Detailed readings will be given in lectures and through Blackboard. Core texts will be O'Rourke and Williamson, Globalization and History: The Evolution of a 19 Century Atlantic Economy (MIT Press, 1999); and Findlay and O'Rourke, Power and Plenty: Trade, War, and the World Economy in the Second Millennium (Princeton University Press, 2007).

Module Pre Requisite

EC2010 (old module) or EC2110 & EC2111 (new modules)

Assessment Details

Michaelmas Term:

  • Review essay, due in first half of Michaelmas Term (50%)
  • Research proposal, due in second half of Michaelmas Term (50%)

Module Website

Blackboard