Readings

SES #	TOPICS	READINGS
Part I—Introduction
1	Whatever next for the world economy?	TV discussion on Bill Moyers Journal (James Kwak and Simon Johnson), PBS, April 2010. You can watch this online (takes about 30 minutes): http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04162010/profile.html Johnson, Simon, and James Kwak. “The American Oligarchy: Six Banks.” Chapter 7 in 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown. Vintage, 2011. ISBN: 9780307476609.
2	Freer markets, more rules? Rethinking regulation in our global economy	Lardner, James. “Annals of Business, The Sweater Trade 1.” The New Yorker, January 11, 1988, 39–73. ———. “Annals of Business, The Sweater Trade 2.” The New Yorker, January 18, 1988, 57–73. “Automatic Reaction: IT Spending has Hollowed Out Labour Markets, to the Detriment of Middle-income Workers,” The Economist, September 9, 2010.
Part II—Varieties of Market Economies
3	Liberal market economies—The United States	Porter, Michael E. “Capital Choices: Changing The Way America Invests in Industry.” Journal of Applied Corporate Finance 5, no. 2 (1992): 4–16. ———. “Determinants of National Competitive Advantage.” Chapter 3 in The Competitive Advantage of Nations. Free Press, 1990, pp. 69–130. ISBN: 9780029253618. Optional Johnson, Simon. “The Quiet Coup.” The Atlantic, May 2009.
4	State-driven development—Singapore	Case Vietor, Richard H. K., and Emily J. Thompson. “Singapore Inc.” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-703-040, August 11, 2003.
5	Emerging markets/uncertain rules—Africa	Cases Huang, Yasheng. “Note on Conflict Diamonds: Why Are Civil Wars, Like Diamonds, Forever?” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-702-027, January 09, 2002. Alfaro, Laura, Vinati Dev, et el. “Botswana: A Diamond in The Rough.” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-703-027, March 31, 2003.
Part III—Beyond the Nation State? Who is Making the New Rules?
6	The politics of trade	Case Abdelal, Rawi, Laura Alfaro, et al. “Bombardier: Canada vs. Brazil at The WTO.” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-703-022, February 20, 2003.
7	Intellectual property protection	Sterenberg, Daniel B. “Intellectual Property Laws in Brazil: Is Breaking Patents to Save Lives Right?” MIT Sloan School of Management. Case under the supervision of Richard Locke, May 23, 2003: 1–24. Case Bartlett, Nicholas, and Debora L. Spar. “Life, Death, and Property Rights: The Pharmaceutical Industry Faces AIDS in Africa.” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-702-049, June 13, 2002.
8	The rise of emerging markets—reaching where?	Subramanian, Arvind. “A Brief History of Economic Dominance.” Chapter 1 in Eclipse: Living in the Shadow of China’s Economic Dominance. Peterson Institute for International Economics, 2011, pp. 85–93. ISBN: 9780881326062. (PDF - 1MB)
9	Global business and human rights	Ruggie, John. “Human Rights Policies and Management Practices of Fortune Global 500 Firms: Results of a Survey.” Harvard University. John F. Kennedy School of Government Working Paper No. 28, 2006, pp. 1–30. Locke, Richard, John Van Maanen, and Eleanor Westney. “Caspian Development Advisory Panel: Lesson Learned.” MIT Sloan School of Management, April 29, 2007: 1–17. Case Mure, Lane La, and Debora L. Spar. “The Burma Pipeline.” Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-798-078, February 25, 1998.
10	Non-government organizations (NGOs) and private non-market action	Locke, Richard M. “The Promise and Perils of Globalization: The Case of Nike.” In Management: Inventing and Delivering Its Future. Edited by Thomas A. Kochan and Richard L. Schmalensee. The MIT Press, 2003, pp. 39–70. ISBN: 9780262112826. [Preview with Google Books] Case Diermeier, Daniel. “Shell, Greenpeace and Brent Spar.” In Business and Its Environment. 4th ed. Edited by David P. Baron. Prentice Hall, 2002, pp. 109–13. ISBN: 9780130470645.
11	Rebuilding the global economic system	Boone, Peter, and Simon Johnson. “Will the Politics of Global Moral Hazard Sink us Again.” In The Future of Finance: The LSE Report. London School of Economics and Political Science, 2010. ISBN: 9780853284581.
12	In-class final exam

SES #	TOPICS	STUDY QUESTIONS
Part I—Introduction
1	Whatever next for the world economy?	Do you think that the world faces a major economic and financial crisis? What strategies are industrialized countries using to counteract the crisis? How will this affect the prospects for various kinds of globalization?
2	Freer markets, more rules? Rethinking regulation in our global economy	Do you agree that national borders no longer matter? Is globalization an economic or political phenomenon? Who are the winners and losers from globalization? What role should/could government play in mitigating risk for business?
Part II—Varieties of Market Economies
3	Liberal market economies—The United States	What are the key features of the US political economy that shape business behavior in this country? What are the politics and economics of reform in the US system?
4	State-driven development—Singapore	How do you account for Singapore’s success? In economics? In politics? What were the sources of its growth? Do you recommend Singapore Inc. as a model for other developing countries? Does the crisis of 2007–2009 make Singapore’s model more or less appealing to other countries?
5	Emerging markets/uncertain rules—Africa	Why did Botswana succeed? How does one define success? Does the success of Botswana offer useful lessons for other developing countries?
Part III—Beyond the Nation State? Who is Making the New Rules?
6	The politics of trade	Is Bombardier engaging in “unfair” competition? If so, how? If not, why not? Why are the governments of Brazil and Canada involved in this industry?
7	Intellectual property protection	What are the economic issues here? What are the ethical issues? Which should prevail: economics or ethics?
8	The rise of emerging markets—reaching where?	Has China already become the world’s dominant economic power? Will the renminbi become the primary reserve currency? What does the US need to do, in order to restore its position in the world?
9	Global business and human rights	Has Unocal violated any laws or norms as a result of its participation in the Yadana project? What responsibility, if any, do global corporations have for people in countries where human rights are not fully protected? What can companies do?
10	Non-government organizations (NGOs) and private non-market action	Why did Shell get itself in such a mess over the Brent Spar situation? How should private companies engage with non-governmental stakeholders?
11	Rebuilding the global economic system	Can we continue to rely on the same global framework for trade and finance? What would a new or substantially reformed system look like? What is actually more likely to happen, in terms of changing the global system? How is this affected or determined by national institutions?
12	In-class final exam

SES #

TOPICS

STUDY QUESTIONS

Part I—Introduction

Whatever next for the world economy?

Do you think that the world faces a major economic and financial crisis?
What strategies are industrialized countries using to counteract the crisis?
How will this affect the prospects for various kinds of globalization?

Freer markets, more rules? Rethinking regulation in our global economy

Do you agree that national borders no longer matter?
Is globalization an economic or political phenomenon? Who are the winners and losers from globalization?
What role should/could government play in mitigating risk for business?

Part II—Varieties of Market Economies

Liberal market economies—The United States

What are the key features of the US political economy that shape business behavior in this country?
What are the politics and economics of reform in the US system?

State-driven development—Singapore

How do you account for Singapore’s success? In economics? In politics?
What were the sources of its growth?
Do you recommend Singapore Inc. as a model for other developing countries?
Does the crisis of 2007–2009 make Singapore’s model more or less appealing to other countries?

Emerging markets/uncertain rules—Africa

Why did Botswana succeed? How does one define success?
Does the success of Botswana offer useful lessons for other developing countries?

Part III—Beyond the Nation State? Who is Making the New Rules?

The politics of trade

Is Bombardier engaging in “unfair” competition? If so, how? If not, why not?
Why are the governments of Brazil and Canada involved in this industry?

Intellectual property protection

What are the economic issues here?
What are the ethical issues?
Which should prevail: economics or ethics?

The rise of emerging markets—reaching where?

Has China already become the world’s dominant economic power?
Will the renminbi become the primary reserve currency?
What does the US need to do, in order to restore its position in the world?

Global business and human rights

Has Unocal violated any laws or norms as a result of its participation in the Yadana project?
What responsibility, if any, do global corporations have for people in countries where human rights are not fully protected? What can companies do?

Non-government organizations (NGOs) and private non-market action

Why did Shell get itself in such a mess over the Brent Spar situation?
How should private companies engage with non-governmental stakeholders?

Rebuilding the global economic system

Can we continue to rely on the same global framework for trade and finance?
What would a new or substantially reformed system look like?
What is actually more likely to happen, in terms of changing the global system? How is this affected or determined by national institutions?

In-class final exam

Browse Course Material

Course Info

Instructor

Departments

As Taught In

Level

Topics

Learning Resource Types

Global Markets, National Politics and the Competitive Advantage of Firms