Economics 709 Spring 2014 TT 11:15-12:30, Thompson 919; Alternate Meeting Room Machmer 413
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Political Economy II --Economics 709 Spring 2014 TT 11:15-12:30, Thompson 919; alternate meeting room Machmer 413 Nancy Folbre, Thompson 1021, [email protected] Office hours: Tuesdays12:30-1:30 or by appointment. Overview: This course explores recent research in radical political economy in an effort develop a better understanding of the relationships among forms of inequality based on class, race, gender, citizenship and other dimensions of collective identity. It emphasizes complementarities among approaches based on Marxian political economy, feminist theory, critical race theory, institutional and behavioral economics. It also explores economic alternatives ranging from workplace democracy to care policy. Assignments and Evaluation: Active class participation is a key aspect of this course. Depending on the size of the class, we may use go-rounds and small group exercises as well as informal discussion. Given the importance of participation, regular attendance is important. If you have a compelling reason to miss class, please let the instructor know in advance. Students may be asked to take turns preparing a brief commentary on the assigned readings to be circulated in advance to help structure discussion. The number of turns will depend on the number of students in the class. Students may also be asked to volunteer for regular presentations on the optional readings. Again, the number of presentations will be negotiated, depending on the class size. Two written requirements for the class: A short paper, of 8-10 pages addressing one of the core questions that we will develop during the semester (questions from last year are listed at the end of the syllabus as a sample) OR an alternative question that has been approved by the instructor. This paper should address both the assigned and the supplemental readings relevant to the question, and should include professional quality endnotes and/or references. It will be due by midnight Sunday, March 30. Students will also be expected to provide a brief summary of this paper in class. The grade on this paper counts as 30% of the final grade. The second requirement for the course is a 15-20 page paper that includes a critical review of the literature on an issue relevant to the course. This paper can build on your short paper, but should not simply incorporate it. If you see the opportunity to move beyond a critical review of the literature in a way that will advance your intellectual agenda, you should take it. This paper will 1 be due on Thursday, May 8 and will count as 70% of the final grade. Syllabus, Scheduling, and Books Required readings are starred. Some of the other readings will be covered in lectures but they primarily represent suggestions for exploration either in a short comment or in a longer research paper. Most of the starred readings are available via explicit links on the Udrive or via JSTOR. Others will be distributed via photocopy in class. Suggestions for additional readings are always welcome. Note that Tuesday, February 18th follows a Monday schedule—no class that day. The class scheduled for Thursday April 24 needs to be rescheduled because the instructor has a prior commitment on that date. SYLLABUS Starred readings are required. I. Week of January 21: To Understand the World and to Change It * Thomas Weisskopf, “Reflections on Fifty Years of Radical Political Economy,” David Gordon Memorial Lecture, Union for Radical Political Economics, Allied Social Science Meetings, Philadelphia, PA, Jan. 3, 2014. Available at https://udrive.oit.umass.edu/folbre/PEII/Weisskopf_Reflections%20on%20Fifty%20Years.docx II. Week of January 28: Structure and Agency * Erik Olin Wright, “Taking the Social in Socialism Seriously,” (summary of Envisioning Real Utopias),” available at http:/www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/Published writing/Taking the social.pdf * Ben Aston, “What is Structure and Agency?” manuscript, available at https://udrive.oit.umass.edu/folbre/PEII/Aston_What%20is%20Structure%20and%20Agency.doc * Nancy Folbre, “The Rise and Decline of Patriarchal Capitalism,” in Robert Pollin and Jeannette Lim, editors, Essays in Honor of Thomas Weisskopf, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2012, available at https://udrive.oit.umass.edu/folbre/PEII/Folbre_The%20Rise%20and%20Decline%20of%20Patri archal%20Capitalism.docx Jon Elster, Making Sense of Marx. London: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Alan Carling. Social Division. London: Verso, 1991. 2 III. Week of February 4: Institutions * Bruce E. Kaufman, “The Institutional Economics of John R. Commons: Complement and Substitute for Neoclassical Economic Theory,” Socioeconomic Review (January 2007) 5 (1): 3- 45. Available at https://udrive.oit.umass.edu/folbre/PEII/Kaufman_Institutional%20Economics%20John%20Com mons.pdf * Herbert Simon, “Organizations and Markets,” The Journal of Economic Perspectives 5:22 (Spring 1991), pp. 25-44. Available at https://udrive.oit.umass.edu/folbre/PEII/Simon%20Organizations%20and%20Markets.pdf *Yoram Ben-Porath, “The F-connection: Families, Friends and Firms and the Organization of Exchange,” Population and Development Review 6:1 (1980), 1-30. Available at https://udrive.oit.umass.edu/folbre/PEII/Ben%20Porath_F%20Connection.pdf Elaine McCrate, “Trade, Merger and Employment: Economic Theory on Marriage,” Review of Radical Political Economics 19:1 (1987), 73-89. Geoffrey Hodgson, Economics and Institutions: A Manifesto for a Modern Institutional Economics . Cambridge, Polity Press, 1988. Oliver Williamson, “The New Institutional Economics: Taking Stock, Looking Ahead,” Journal of Economic Literature XXXVIII (September 2000, 595-613. www.kysq.org/docs/Williamson2000.pdf Douglas North, “Institutions and the Performance of Economies over Time” (available online through UMass catalog in Ebook entitled Handbook of New Institutional Economics, ed. Claude Menard and Mary M. Shirley) Nancy Folbre, “Engendering Economics: New Perspectives on Women, Work, and Demographic Change,” Annual World Bank Conference on Development Jack Knight.1992. Institutions and Social Conflict. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. IV. Week of February 11. Contracts and Principal-Agent Problems * Armen A. Alchian and Harold Demsetz, “Production, Information Costs, and Economic Organization,” American Economic Review 62:5 (1972), 777-795. Available at https://udrive.oit.umass.edu/folbre/PEII/Alchian%20and%20Demsetz_Production%2C%20Infor mation%20Costs.pdf * Samuel Bowles, “The Production Process in a Competitive Economy: Walrasian, Neo- 3 Hobbesian, and Marxian Models, American Economic Review 75:1 (1985), 16-36, Available at https://udrive.oit.umass.edu/folbre/PEII/Bowles_Production%20Process%20in%20a%20Compet itive%20Economy.pdf * Elissa Braunstein and Nancy Folbre, "To Honor and Obey: Efficiency, Inequality, and Patriarchal Property Rights," Feminist Economics, 7:1 (2001), 25-54, available at https://udrive.oit.umass.edu/folbre/PEII/Braunstein%20and%20Folbre_To%20Honor%20and%2 0Obey.pdf * Shelly Lundberg and Robert A. Pollak, “Separate Spheres Bargaining and the Marriage Market,” Journal of Political Economy 101:6 (1993), 988-1010. Available at https://udrive.oit.umass.edu/folbre/PEII/Lundberg%20and%20Pollak_Separate%20Spheres%20 Bargaining.pdf Paula England and Nancy Folbre, “Contracting for Care” in Feminist Economics Today: Beyond Economic Man, ed. Marianne Ferber and Julie Nelson. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. Donald E. Campbell. Incentives and the Economics of Information. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Stephen Cheung, S., “The Enforcement of Property Rights in Children, and the Marriage Contract,” Economic Journal, 82:326 (1972): 641-57. V. Week of February 18: Force, Violence, and Group Selection (only one session this week) * Karl Marx, Capital, “The Secret of Primitive Accumulation” Available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=965&chapter=953 3&layout=html&Itemid=27 * Jack Hirshleifer, Introduction, The Dark Side of the Force. Economic Foundations of Conflict Theory (New York: Cambridge, 2001) available at https://udrive.oit.umass.edu/folbre/PEII/Hirshleifer_Dark%20Side%20of%20the%20Force.pdf * Herbert A. Simon, “A Mechanism for Social Selection and Successful Altruism,” Science, Vol. 250, No. 4988 (Dec. 21, 1990), pp. 1665-1668, available at https://udrive.oit.umass.edu/folbre/PEII/Simon__Mechanism%20for%20Social%20Selection.pdf * E. O. Wilson, “Evolution and Our Inner Conflict,” New York Times, June 24, 2012, available at http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/evolution-and-our-inner-conflict/ *Nancy Folbre, “Chicks, Hawks, and Patriarchal Institutions,” in Handbook of Contemporary Behavioral Economics, ed. Morris Altman. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2006. 4 https://udrive.oit.umass.edu/folbre/PEII/Folbre_Chicks%20Hawks%20and%20Patriarchal%20In stitutions.rtf Jung-Kyoo Choi and Samuel Bowles, “The Coevolution of Parochial Altruism and War,” Science 318: 5850 (October 26, 2007, 636-640 (available at https://udrive.oit.umass.edu/folbre/PEII/10_Coevolution_Parochial_Altruism.pdf Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel. The Fates of Human Societies. New York: W.W. Norton, 1997. Malcolm Potts and Thomas Hayden. Sex and War. Dallas: Benbella Books, 2008. Michelle Garfinkel and Stergios Skarperdas. 2000. “Contract or War?” American Economist. 441 (1):2000, 5-16. Michelle R. Grossman and Minseong Kim 1995. “Swords or Ploughshares?” Journal of Political Economy 103(6):1275-1288. VI. Week of February 25: Exploitation and Inequality * John Roemer,