After completing the course Comparative Economic and Business Systems the student is able to:
- Assess the advantages and disadvantages of the various forms of market economies;
- Describe and explain the various national coordination, business, innovation, and control systems
- Apply theories and methods of comparative economics in analyzing differences in economic performance between countries and groups of countries
- Understand and explain the different empirical strategies used to investigate the relation between institutions and (socio-)economic outcomes.
- Perform an empirical analysis to investigate the link between country-level institutions and (socio-)economic outcomes.
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This course is at its core about some of the most fundamental questions in economics: “Why are some countries poorer than others”, and “Why do some countries have different economic and socio-economic outcomes than other countries”? To address these questions, we have to go beyond standard economic theories based upon labor, capital accumulation, and technology and we need to understand why these factors differ between countries and periods in the first place. This course will emphasize the interrelationships between the political and institutional systems of countries, their economic systems, and the historical development of both.
Institutions matter for economic organization and outcomes. This course will examine how the international and institutional contexts can result in distinct economic systems and how this affects the organization and strategies of firms, the operation of markets, and (socio-) economic outcomes. This course provides the theoretical and empirical foundations for assessing the relationship between institutions and policymaking and how this might affect countries' comparative innovative and economic performance.
Attention is paid to amongst others long-term development, financial markets, legal systems, governments, labor markets, political systems, inequality, culture, and well-being.
This will be done using a collection of theoretical and empirical papers dealing with a variety of subjects within comparative economic and business systems. These papers are material for the lectures and the written exam. Next to that, students need to write (in groups) an empirical research paper themselves. This research paper has to deal with country-level institutional differences and (socio-)economic outcomes.
This course will cover a wide range of empirical papers and methods, and students have to write an empirical research paper themselves. Therefore, the course is quite strongly focused on empirical research. This means that prior knowledge and understanding of empirical research and statistical software is (highly) recommended.
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- Prior knowledge and understanding of empirical research is recommended.
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Written exam (70%) and research paper (30%)
Both parts have to be obtained in the same academic year
To pass the course a minimum weighted average of 5.5 and a minimum of a 5 for the individual parts has to be obtained. |
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