Historia Económica: Historia de la Globalización, Desarrollo e Integración de la Economía Mundial (18BBA60002)

General information

Type:	OP	Curs:	1	Period:	S semester
ECTS Credits:	2 ECTS

Teaching Staff:

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
	Ricard García Orallo	Economía, Finanzas y Contabilidad	ESP

Lectures: 12 hours
Participatory sessions: 6 hours
Independent study: 30 hours

The convulsive changes the global economy has experienced in the last few years has made clear that we need to include a historic perspective in our future graduates' education. In an open and dynamic economic context, the study of the global bases of humanity's recent history will provide students with a reference framework with which to contextualise and interpret the complex and ever-changing reality of contemporary societies. This course thus examines the global economic integration process and its political and social repercussions from a multidisciplinary and long-term focus which may help to expand horizons, often overly limited with exclusively national or short-term views.

Why did the Industrial Revolution take place in Europe and not in China? How did wealthy countries become rich? Does globalisation favour economic convergence between countries? Are the bases of contemporary economic growth sustainable? Does inequality favour or harm economic growth? These are just some of the questions on which the course content is based. The aim is to provide students with the analytical tools they need to be able to contextualise the economic globalisation process historically. After completing this course, students will have the basic knowledge to understand and take part in today's debates on questions such as the persistence of inequality in the access to well-being, the repercussions of technological change, the long-term demographic transformations and the current social and environmental conflicts transpiring on a global scale.

Stemming from these global objectives, the course also has a series of other specific objectives linked to developing certain competencies:

A. Provide students with reference frameworks, theories and tools as well as the keys for their use to analyse diverse situations.
B. Encourage the integration and structuring of the knowledge attained in this course by preparing argumentative work in which students have to respond a given question or discuss a concrete issue.
C. Exchange information and promote debate between students.

4. Conveying information and/or knowledge

1. Knowledge acquisition, comprehension and structuring

1. The economic origins of the modern world, 1500 - 1800 AD The first thematic block will focus on the historical causes which may have encouraged long-term economic growth. We will focus on the debate which has recently revitalised on the meaning of the Industrial Revolution as a decisive turning point in defining the contemporary world.

1.1. Global long-term economic growth Some preliminary reflections on economic growth over the last two millennia

1.2. The "Great Divergence": A European miracle? Why did the Industrial Revolution take place in Europe and not China? The search for causes behind economic growth

1.3. The different paths towards growth A new look at the Industrial Revolution

2. World economic integration after the Industrial Revolution. The second block addresses the economic globalisation process over the last two centuries. We will examine the primary events in the international economy from a critical perspective based on questions which will lead us to reconsider some key questions.

2.1. The first globalisation: Economic internationalisation during the 19th century Why are some countries rich and others poor? Trade policies and international relations in the Age of Imperialism

2.2. De-globalisation: Crisis and transformation of the global economy, 1914-1950 Can globalisation recede? A new, smaller world: World Wars and the Great Depression

2.3. The "Golden Age", energy crisis and second globalisation, 1950-2007 What were the drivers behind the period of greatest economic growth the world has ever known? Why was it interrupted? A look at the relation between economy and ideology in the contemporary world.

3. Globalisation and inequality The third block is dedicated to analysing the consequences of economic globalisation in the contemporary world, in particular, the effects that represent the biggest challenges for humanity's immediate future such as the impact on inequality, the pressure on available natural resources and the repetition of economic crises on a global scale.

3.1. Global economy: Convergence or divergence? Does globalisation reduce inequality between countries?

3.2. The persistence of underdevelopment and inequality If globalisation is so positive, why is there still so much (or more) poverty?

3.3. The reasons behind economic crises (from the Great Depression to the Great Recession, 1929-2014) Some similarities and dissimilarities between the 1929 and 2007 crises.

There are five theoretical-practical in-class sessions and one fully participatory session. The first group will consist of initial lectures by faculty, structured like seminars and with the support of audiovisual material. In addition, faculty will provide additional material which students must prepare before class. The latter will be the focus of four brief exercises which faculty will mark (during sessions 2, 3, 4 and 5). Time will also be set aside in each session for students to work on their projects. Students will present the first versions of their projects during the last session and discuss them with the entire group. They will have to present their final versions during the weeks immediately after the teaching component finalises.

ASSESSMENT BREAKDOWN

Feliu, G.; Sudrià, C. (2013): Introducción a la historia económica mundial, València, Universitat de València.
Comín, F.; Hernández, M.; Llopis, E. (2005): Historia económica mundial. Siglos X-XX, Barcelona, Crítica.

Group	Teacher	Department
	Ricard García Orallo	Economía, Finanzas y Contabilidad