Róbinson
Rojas (1997) on
Basic knowledge
on economics
1.- Introduction
to the subject matter of economics:
The
economic problem. Resource allocation: alternative approaches, the free
market versus central planning. Discuss the meaning of "resource
allocation" and outline the main alternative methods of allocating
resources.
Concepts for Review: Economic resources, resource allocation,
production possibility curves, supply, demand, competition,
profitability and the free market, central planning and bureaucracy,
factors of production, distribution of income, factor mobility
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- Notes on the philosophy of the
capitalist system
- Notes on economics: assuming
scarcity
- Notes on economics: about
obscenities, poverty and inequality
- Adam
Smith: The wealth of nations
- Adam
Smith: The theory of moral sentiments
- K.
Marx/F. Engels: Bourgeois and proletarians
- Karl
Marx: Capital, and other early works
- F.
Engels: Introduction to K. Marx's
"Wage-labour and capital"
- Karl
Marx: Wage-labour and capital
- Albert
Einstein: Relativity: The Special and General Theory
Andre Gunder Frank
(1992) on:
Marketing Democracy in
an Undemocratic Market
"...When Gandhi was
asked what he thought of "Western Civilization," he answered "it would
be a good idea." We can say as much of development and democracy as
well. However, for the Third World, "democracy" is likely to become no
more real in the future than "development," or Western Civilization for
that matter, did in the past. Instead like the latter, "democracy" may
well become a flag - or the figleaf - for continued exploitation and
oppression of the South by the North.
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2.- The history of
economic thought [1]:
Classical
economics: the economic thought of Smith, Ricardo -problems of value,
production and distribution, and economic growth. Karl Marx and the
role of surplus value in the capitalist system of production.
Discussion of the central principles of classical economics. Value
theory and the long-term prospects for the capitalist economy in the
classical and marxist thought.
Concepts for review: Free market, competition, Smith's theory of value,
the invisible hand, laissez faire, the labour theory of value, Marx's
concept of surplus value, the rate of profits, capital accumulation,
business cycles, Marx's concept of crises.
3.- The history of economic thought [2]:
Principles
of neo-classical economic thought; price theory and allocation of
resources. Post 1945 economic thought: the rise and fall of
keynesianism and monetarism. Outline the main differences between the
neo-classical, keynesian and monetarist schools of thought as related
to inflation, unemployment, economic growth and state involvement in
the economy.
Concepts for review: Price determination, allocation of resources,
supply and demand, Say's law, aggregate demand and aggregate supply,
the quantity theory of money, the public sector borrowing requirement.
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4.- The theory of
production [1]:
The
firm's costs and revenues. Price and output determination in conditions
of perfect competition. Allocation of capital and labour. The perfect
competition model of price and output determination. How real?
Concepts for review:Fixed costs, variable costs. Total, average and
marginal costs. Total, average and marginal revenues. Profit
maximization ( normal and abnormal profits ) in the long and short run.
5.- The theory of production [2]:
Oligopoly
and Monopoly. Effects of oligopoly and monopoly on levels of
employment, price and output. Contradiction between maximization of
profits and maximization of employment. Globalization and oligopolies:
transnational corporations. Comparing perfect competition and monopoly
competition. The case of environmental damage.
Concepts for review: Economies and dis-economies of scale. Efficiency
of production. The role of abnormal profits in research and
development. The role of abnormal profits in patterns of consumption.
The role of abnormal profits in distribution of income.
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A typical
textbook on capitalist economics:
Introduction to Economic Analysis
by R.
Preston McAfee
California Institute of Technology
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6.- The
theory of distribution:
Determination
of the returns to factors of production: rent, interest, profits,
and wages. The labour market and wage determination. Demand for
labour as "derived". Wage differentials. What determines wage rates?
Why do wage rates differ? How do they differ in the U.K.?
Concepts for review: Marginal productivity. Law of diminishing returns.
Supply of and demand for factors of production. Competitive (
deregulated ) labour markets. Monopolies and monopsonistic labour
markets. Trade unions bargaining power: economic effects.
7.- The economics of income distribution:
Causes
of income inequality. Trends in income inequality. The case against
income inequality. The case for income inequality. The "invisible"
poor. Two points of view: personal shortcomings? Social victims?
The rationale of a social security system. Discuss, bringing some
evidence to the discussion, the cases against and for income inequality
in a capitalist system
Concepts for review: underemployment, relative poverty, absolute
poverty, welfare state.
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- Inequality/social exclusion
- Poverty
- Informal sector
- Microfinance
- PRSP
- U.S. economic inequality,
poverty, social exclusion and corruption
- Economic inequality,
poverty, and social exclusion in Latin America
- Economic inequality,
poverty, social exclusion and corruption in China |
8.- The
national income:
Definitions
and measurements. Problems of measurements. Uses and reliability of
national income statistics. Outline some of the uses of national income
figures, and discuss the reliability of the statistics in relation to
these uses.
9.- National income determination [I]:
Circular
flow of income. Investments, government spending and exports. Saving,
taxation, imports. The concept of equilibrium level of national income.
The concept of aggregate demand - consumption, investment and
government expenditure. Use circular flow analysis to explain the
concept of the equilibrium level of the national income.
10.- National income determination [II]:
Aggregate
demand - theories of consumption, investment, and government spending.
What factors determine aggregate consumption?
11.- National income determination [III]:
Aggregate
demand and Aggregate supply and the equilibrium level of national
income.The multiplier and accelerator principles and changes in
national income.
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12.- Money
and Banking:
Functions
and measurement of money. The process of credit creation. The
relationship between central bank and the commercial banks, The demand
for money and the rate of interest.
What is the 'money supply', and what determines its rate of expansion?
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13.- Managing
the Economy [I]:
The
main objectives of macroeconomic policy and the conflicts between these
objectives.The instruments of policy - fiscal and monetary
polices, prices and incomes policies, exchange rates and import
controls. Explain why there are likely to be conflicts between the
major objectives of economic policies.
14.- Managing the Economy [II]:
Unemployment
- definitions and measurement. Recent trends in unemployment. Causes of
unemployment. Inflation and unemployment. Keynesian and Monetarist
approaches. What is meant by 'full employment'? Critically discuss the
view that full employment is no longer an achievable objective of
economic policy in the U.K.
15.- Managing the Economy[III]:
Inflation
- definition and measurement. Causes and cures. Keynesian and
Monetarist explanations. What caused the significant rise in inflation
at the end of the 1980's in the U.K.
See also Inflation in The
Róbinson Rojas Archive
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United Nations
Research Institute for Social Development
on Rethinking
Development Economics:
- A Brief Note on the Decline and Rise of Development
Economics
- An Agenda for the New Development Economics
- Beyond Macroeconomic Concerns to Development Issues
- Challenges of Economic Development
- Development Economics: A Call to Action
- Development Economics: Coping with New Challenges,
Especially Globalization
- Development Studies or Development Economics: Moving
forward from TINA
- Economic Development and the Revival of the Classical
Surplus Approach
- Enclavity and Constrained Labour Absortive Capacity in
Southern African Economies
- For an Emancipatory Socio-Economics
- Inequality and Poverty as the Condition of Labour
- International Economic Policy
- Lessons from Transition Economies: Strong Institutions
are More Important than the Speed of Reforms
- Notes on Development Economics
- On Rethinking Development Economics
- Opening Space for Development
- Producing a New Generation of Practising Development
Economists
- Reclaiming the Right to Development
- Reflections on the Restoration of Development Economics
- Reviving Development Economics: Eight Challenges and
Dilemmas
- Some Issues in Development Economics
- Some Thoughts on the Agenda for Development Economics
- Some Thoughts on the Implications of Increasing
Returns for Economic Development
- The Developmental Agenda in the Age of Neoliberal
Globalization
- The Need to Rethink Development Economics
- The Neo-Liberal Doctrine and the African Crisis
- The "Washington Consensus" and Development Economics
- Thoughts and Proposals on Reviving Development
Economics
- Towards Developmental Democracy: A Note
- Women, Politics and a Development Economics Renaissance
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16.- International
Economic Relationships:
An
overview of the current status of relationships between the major
trading blocks and their relations with Less Developed Countries.
Discuss some of the main areas of policy conflict that exist between
the major trading blocks the international economy, and estimate the
chances of achieving concerted action to solve these problems.
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- On Globalisation
- Notes on structural adjustment
programmes
- Agenda 21 revisited (notes)
- 15 years of monetarism in Latin
America: time to scream
- Latin America: a failed
industrial revolution
- Latin America: the making of a
fractured society
- Latin America: a dependent mode
of production
- The 'adjustment' of the world
economy
- The transnational corporate
system in the late 1990s
- A market-friendly strategy for
development
- Notes on agribusiness in the 1990s
- Transnational corporations in
developing countries
- Latin America: blockages to
development
- Development Studies: Researching
for the big bosses?
- Journal of World System Research
- International capital and
intellectual dishonesty
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17.- An examination of the
political and economic reasons for the collapse of central planning in
bureaucratic socialist societies ( especially Soviet Union ):
Concepts for review: Economic efficiency and social
efficiency as relative notions. Welfare and profits. Cold War.
Bureaucratic socialism. Perestroika. The social role of employment.
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1.- The end
of the Chinese revolution (1978)
2.- Notes on
class analysis in socialist China (1978)
3.- Class
stratification in the Chinese countryside (1979)
4.- The
Chinese attempt to build a socialist society (1997)
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18.- Appendix.-
Notes on Balance of Payments:
Understanding
the dynamics of balance of payments. The political economy of balance
of payments. The balance of payments and the concepts of globalization,
dependence, dominance and comparative advantage. Patterns of
consumption and aggregate demand.
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19.- Making sense of development studies
The
story of less developed societies after 1945 is the story of
geographical zones of economic and political influence where Africa
was a hunting ground for Western European capital, Latin America for
United States transnational capital, and East and South East Asia under
the "guidance" of Japanese corporate capital. All of it parallel to the
political aim of 'encircling' the two former 'evils': Soviet Union
and satellites, and People's Republic of China and North Viet Nam.
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- Sustainable development in a
globalized economy? The odds. 1999
- Sustainable development in a
globalized economy. 1997
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