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2020/2021

Applied Economics in East Asia

Code: 101532 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500244 East Asian Studies OB 2 1
The proposed teaching and assessment methodology that appear in the guide may be subject to changes as a result of the restrictions to face-to-face class attendance imposed by the health authorities.

Contact

Name:
Jordi Rosell Foxa
Email:
Jordi.Rosell@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
english (eng)
Some groups entirely in English:
Yes
Some groups entirely in Catalan:
No
Some groups entirely in Spanish:
No

Teachers

Roser Álvarez Klee

Prerequisites

Students must be able to read and understand academic texts in English. It is advisable, though not mandatory, to have passed the first-year "Introduction to Economics" course.

Objectives and Contextualisation

On successfully completing this subject, students will be able to:

- Understand economic texts from general economics magazines and newspapers with particular reference to East Asia.

- Understand the position and role of East Asia in the world economy.

- Understand the political economics of the different patterns of growth and development of the countries of East Asia.

- Submit a report on a specific economic aspect of a country in East Asia.

Competences

  • Describing and analysing in a contrastive way the systems of business organization, administration, and management in East Asia.
  • Designing and managing projects.
  • Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  • Developing self-learning strategies.
  • Ensuring the quality of one's own work.
  • Following the characteristic code of ethics of the professional practice.
  • Knowing and understanding the social relations, protocol and negotiation in the decision making process in East Asia.
  • Knowing and using the information and communication technology resources (ICT) in order to collect, produce, analyse and present information related to the East Asian Studies.
  • Knowing, comprehending, describing, analysing and assessing the structures and economic processes of East Asia and its inclusion in the global economy.
  • Promoting the sustainable development.
  • Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  • Students must be flexible and capable of adapting to new circumstances.
  • Working in interdisciplinary and intercultural groups.
  • Working in teams in an international, multilingual and multicultural context.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Assessing the obtained results in the search information process in order to update the knowledge about political sciences, economy and sociology.
  2. Describing and analysing in a contrastive way the systems of business organization, administration, and management in East Asia.
  3. Designing and managing projects.
  4. Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  5. Developing self-learning strategies.
  6. Ensuring the quality of one's own work.
  7. Following the characteristic code of ethics of the professional practice.
  8. Knowing and understanding the social relations, protocol and negotiation in the decision making process in East Asia.
  9. Knowing, comprehending, describing, analysing and assessing the structures and economic processes of East Asia and its inclusion in the global economy.
  10. Promoting the sustainable development.
  11. Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  12. Students must be flexible and capable of adapting to new circumstances.
  13. Using different tools for specific purposes in the fields of political sciences, economy and sociology.
  14. Using the specific terminology of political sciences, economy and sociology.
  15. Working in interdisciplinary and intercultural groups.
  16. Working in teams in an international, multilingual and multicultural context.

Content

Topic 1: Economic environment of East Asia: globalisation and regional integration

Topic 2: Japan: the Meiji Restoration. Imperialism and war economy

Topic 3: Japan: the Japanese economic miracle and the lost decades

Topic 4: The four Asian tigers: South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore

Topic 5: China: planned economy. Economic reform and development

Topic 6: China and the global economy. Trade, investment and external projection

Topic 7: The emerging Southeast Asian economies

Methodology

1. Directed activities:

- Lectures on general topics. To achieve the established objectives, this subject mainly involves lectures.

- Theoretical and practical exercises, in groups or individually.

- Discussions on the subject matter of lectures, based on previous reading or explanations. 

- Presentations in class.

2. Supervised activities:

- Exercises at home, compulsory reading assignments. 

3. Autonomous activities:

- Reading and written work, individually or in groups. 

- Written summary of classes, comments on texts, articles, books, etc. 

Students must keep abreast of the news and information published on the Virtual Campus / Moodle.

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Lectures, theoretical and practical exercises, presentations and discussions. 50 2 1, 9, 2, 13, 14
Type: Supervised      
Exercises, compulsory reading assignments. 34 1.36 7, 4, 3, 11, 12, 16, 15, 6
Type: Autonomous      
Reading assignments and written essays. 45 1.8 7, 5, 4, 3, 11, 12, 16, 15, 6

Assessment

Assessment is continuous. Students must provide evidence of their progress by completing tasks and tests. Task deadlines will be indicated in the course schedule on the first day of class.

The final mark is based on:

- 30%: individual or group assignment.

- 35%: exam on the first part of the course.

- 35%: exam on the second part of the course.

Related matters

The above information on assessment, assessment activities and their weighting is merely a guide. The subject's lecturer will provide full information when teaching begins.

Review

When publishing final marks prior to recording them on students' transcripts, the lecturer will provide written notification of a date and time for reviewing assessment activities. Students must arrange reviews in agreement with the lecturer.

Missed/failed assessment activities

Students may retake assessment activities they have failed or compensate for any they have missed, provided that those they have actually performed account for a minimum of 66.6% (two thirds) of the subject's final mark and that they have a weighted average mark of at least 3.5. Under no circumstances may an assessment activity worth 100% of the final mark be retaken or compensated for.

The lecturer will inform students of the procedure involved, in writing, when publishing final marks prior to recording them on transcripts. The lecturer may set one assignment per failed or missed assessment activity or a single assignment to cover a number of such activities.

Classification as "not assessable"

In the event of the assessment activities a student has performed accounting for just 25% or less of the subject's final mark, their work will be classified as "not assessable" on their transcript.

Misconduct in assessment activities

Students who engage in misconduct (plagiarism, copying, personation, etc.) in an assessment activity will receive a mark of “0” for the activity in question. In the case of misconduct in more than one assessment activity, the students involved will be given a final mark of “0” for the subject.

Students may not retake assessment activities in which they are found to have engaged in misconduct. Plagiarism is considered to mean presenting all or part of an author's work, whether published in print or in digital format, as one's own, i.e. without citing it. Copying is considered to mean reproducing all or a substantial part of another student's work. In cases of copying in which it is impossible to determine which of two students has copied the work of the other, both will be penalised.

More information: http://www.uab.cat/web/study-abroad/undergraduate/academic-information/evaluation/what-is-it-about-1345670077352.html

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Individual or group assignment 30% 17 0.68 7, 5, 4, 3, 11, 12, 16, 15, 6
Midterm exam I 35% 2 0.08 1, 8, 9, 2, 10, 13, 14
Midterm exam II 35% 2 0.08 1, 8, 9, 2, 10, 13, 14

Bibliography

Amsden, Alice H. (1989) Asia’s Next Giant: South Korea and Late Industrialization. Oxford University Press.

Amsden, Alice H. and Chu, Wan-wen (2003) Beyond Late Development: Taiwan’s Upgrading Policies. The MIT Press.

Asian Development Bank (2018) Asian Economic Integration Report. Towards optimal provision of regional public goods in Asia and the Pacific (free access).

Armstrong, Shiro and Westland, Tom (2018), eds., Asian Economic Integration in the Era of Global Uncertainty. Australian National University (ANU) Press (free access).

Bray, Francesca (1986) The Rice Economies. Technology & Development in Asian Societies. Basil Blackwell.

Chiu, Stephen W. K. (2019) City-States in the Global Economy: Industrial Restructuring in Hong Kong and Singapore. Routledge.

Duus, Peter (1989), ed., The Cambridge History of Japan. Volume 6: The Twentieth Century. Cambridge University Press.

Flath, David (2000) The Japanese economy. Oxford University Press.

Fruin, Mark (1992) The Japanese enterprise system. Competitive Strategies and Cooperative Structures. Oxford University Press.

Garnaut, Ross and Song, Ligang (2018) China’s 40 years of reform and development. The ANU Press (free access).

Goh, Evelyn (2013) The Struggle for Order: Hegemony, Hierarchy, and Transition in Post-Cold War East Asia. Oxford University Press.

Hal Hill, María Socorro Gochoco Bautista, eds., (2013) Asia Rising. Growth and Resilience in an Uncertain Global Economy. Asian Development Bank. Edward Elgar (free access).

Hamashita, Takeshi (2008) China, East Asia and the Global Economy. Regional and historical perspectives. Routledge.

Hamilton Gary G. and Cheng, Shu-kao (2017) Making money. How Taiwanese industrialists embraced the global economy. Stanford University Press.

Hatch, Walter (2010) Asia’s Flying Geese: How Regionalization Shapes Japan. Cornell University Press.

Howe, Christopher (1996) Theorigins of the Japanese trade supremacy. University of Chicago Press.

Huang, Yasheng (2008) Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics: Entrepreneurship and the State. Cambridge University Press.

Huff, W. Gregg (2004) The Economic Growth of Singapore: Trade and Development in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge University Press.

Jansen, Marius B. (1989), ed., The Cambridge History of Japan. Volume 5: The Nineteenth Century. Cambridge University Press.

Johnson, Chalmers (1982) MITI and the Japanese Miracle: The Growth of Industrial Policy, 1925-1975. Stanford University Press.

McNamara, Dennis L. (1990) The colonial origins of the Korean enterprise. Cambridge University Press.

Naughton, Barry (2007) The Chinese economy. Transitions and growth. The MIT Press.

Ohno, Kenichi (2006) The Economic Development of Japan. The Path travelled by Japan as a developing country. GRIPS Development Forum (free access).

Pomeranz, Kenneth (2000) The Great Divergence. China, Europe and the making of the modern world economy. Stanford University Press.

Rawski, Thomas G. (2009), ed., China’s Great Economic Transformation. Cambridge University Press.

Studwell, Joe (2013) How Asia Works. Success and failure in the World's Most Dynamic Region. Profile Books.

Walter, Andrew, and Zhang, Xiaoke (2012), eds., East Asian Capitalism: Diversity, Continuity, And Change. Oxford University Press.

Wu, Jinglian (2005) Understanding and interpreting Chinese economic reform. Texere.

Yeung, Henry Wai-chung (2016) Strategic Coupling: East Asian Industrial Transformation in the New Global Economy. Cornell University Press. 

Articles and websites relevant to specific topics will be recommended via the Virtual Campus / Moodle.