This course analyzes historical major economic, political, and social changes in the world economy. These include factors contributing to increases in economic performance, changes in the form of government, technological change (including industrialization), and episodes of integration and disintegration of the global economy. Emphasis is on institutional changes in how societies organize economic and political activities and variation in development among geographic regions.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:

1. demonstrate an understanding of the various mechanisms by which economies develop
2. apply economic theory and analysis to historical and contemporary episodes of economic growth
3. critically assess academic articles in economic journals and reports, and those from other disciplines
4. write well-structured, coherent, and concise essays that synthesise and critically analyse economic ideas
5. work in teams to analyse and present key findings of academic research and their strengths, limitations and context in the wider fields of relevant inquiry

Research-Led Teaching

Theory and examples covered in the course are derived from research in the field of economics and economic history. In addition, students will have the opportunity to conduct their own historical analysis from the economic viewpoint.

Required Resources

McKay, Huw 2024, The Strategic Logic of China's Economy, Springer

The Maddison database (free, online) https://www.rug.nl/ggdc/historicaldevelopment/maddison/?lang=en

Our World in Data (free, online) https://ourworldindata.org/

Recommended Resources

Maddison, Angus 2007, Contours of the World Economy 1-2030 AD, Oxford UP

Snooks, Graeme Donald 1996, The Dynamic Society, Routledge

Snooks, Graeme Donald 1998, The Laws of History, Taylor & Francis

Bairoch, Paul 1995, Economics and World History: Myths and Paradoxes, University of Chicago Press

Bénétrix, Agustín S., Kevin H. O'Rourke and Jeffrey G. Williamson (2012) “The spread of manufacturing to the periphery 1870-2007: Eight stylized facts” NBER Working Paper 18221, July.

Delong, Brad 2022, Slouching Towards Utopia, Basic Books

Mokyr, Joel 1992, The Lever of Riches, Oxford UP

Landes, David S. 2003, The Unbound Prometheus, Cambridge UP

Eichengreen, Barry 2019, Globalizing Capital: a history of the international monetary system, 3rd edition, Princeton UP.

Kindleberger, Charles 2013, The World in Depression, 1929-1932, 40th anniversary edition, University of California Press

Gordon, Robert 2017, The Rise and Fall of American Growth: the U.S. standard of living since the Civil War, Princeton UP.

Reinhart, Carmen M. and Kenneth S., Rogoff 2009, This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, Princeton UP.

Kenwood, Lougheed and Graff 2013, Growth of the international economy, 1820-2015 (ebook ANU library)

Foreman-Peck, J. 1994, A History of the World Economy

Acemoglu, D. and Robinson, J., 2012, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty, Random House. (ebook ANU library)

Staff Feedback

Students will be given feedback in the following forms in this course:

• written comments
• verbal comments
• feedback to whole class, groups, individuals, focus group etc

Student Feedback

ANU is committed to the demonstration of educational excellence and regularly seeks feedback from students. Students are encouraged to offer feedback directly to their Course Convener or through their College and Course representatives (if applicable). Feedback can also be provided to Course Conveners and teachers via the Student Experience of Learning & Teaching (SELT) feedback program. SELT surveys are confidential and also provide the Colleges and ANU Executive with opportunities to recognise excellent teaching, and opportunities for improvement.

Other Information

I communicate in class and through Canvas. Please check Canvas regularly in case there are any new announcements.

Class Schedule

Week/Session	Summary of Activities	Assessment
1	The Great Steps of Human Progress and the Industrial Revolution: a framework for understanding long-run economic change
2	The world economy in the long run: an empirical discussion.	Tutorial 1 and Online Quiz
3	C19th Industrialisation strategies of Britain and the Continental Powers (incorporating Imperialism)	Tutorial 2
4	C19th Industrialisation strategies of the USA, other "European offshoots" and East Asia.	Tutorial 3 and Online Quiz
5	The end of a long nineteenth century or the beginning of a long twentieth century? 1860 to 1913.	Tutorial 4
6	Mid-Semester Exam, includes material to the end of Tutorial 4	Mid-Semester Exam on Wednesday 26 August at the usual lecture time. No lecture or tutorials this week.
7	World War I, the 1920s, and the onset of the Great Depression.	Tutorial 6
8	Responses to the Great Depression, the 1930s and World War II	Tutorial 7 and Online Quiz, Essay Due on Monday 22 September
9	The world of Bretton Woods: 1946 to 1979.	Tutorial 8
10	The post Bretton Woods order: 1980 to 2019.	Tutorial 9 and Online Quiz
11	The 2020s	Tutorial 10
12	Where do we go from here? The future of the world economy	Tutorial 11 and Online Quiz

Tutorial Registration

You are expected to attend and actively participate in a tutorial each week from Week 2 onwards. Lecture attendance is expected too.

ANU utilises MyTimetable to enable students to view the timetable for their enrolled courses, browse, then self-allocate to small teaching activities / tutorials so they can better plan their time. Find out more on the Timetable webpage.

Assessment Summary

Assessment task	Value	Due Date	Return of assessment	Learning Outcomes
Fortnightly Online Canvas Quizzes	10 %	*	*	1, 2, 3
Mid-Semester Exam 26-8-2026	20 %	26/08/2026	18/09/2026	1, 2, 3, 4
Essay & student interview	30 %	22/09/2026	13/10/2026	1, 2, 3, 4
Seminar presentation	10 %	*	*	1, 2, 3, 4
Final Exam	30 %	05/11/2026	09/12/2026	1, 2, 4

* If the Due Date and Return of Assessment date are blank, see the Assessment Tab for specific Assessment Task details

Policies

ANU has educational policies, procedures and guidelines , which are designed to ensure that staff and students are aware of the University’s academic standards, and implement them. Students are expected to have read the Academic Integrity Rule before the commencement of their course. Other key policies and guidelines include:

• Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
• Student Assessment (Coursework) Policy and Procedure
• Extenuating Circumstances Application
• Student Surveys and Evaluations
• Deferred Examinations
• Student Complaint Resolution Policy and Procedure
• Code of practice for teaching and learning

Assessment Requirements

The ANU is using Turnitin to enhance student citation and referencing techniques, and to assess assignment submissions as a component of the University's approach to managing Academic Integrity. For additional information regarding Turnitin please visit the Academic Skills website. In rare cases where online submission using Turnitin software is not technically possible; or where not using Turnitin software has been justified by the Course Convener and approved by the Associate Dean (Education) on the basis of the teaching model being employed; students shall submit assessment online via ‘Canvas’ outside of Turnitin, or failing that in hard copy, or through a combination of submission methods as approved by the Associate Dean (Education). The submission method is detailed below.

Moderation of Assessment

Marks that are allocated during Semester are to be considered provisional until formalised by the College examiners meeting at the end of each Semester. If appropriate, some moderation of marks might be applied prior to final results being released.

Participation

Details on the delivery of this course and expectations of student participation are outlined in further detail on the Canvas course site. Tutorials are a discussion-based class. Providing worked solutions would not effectively compensate for missing a tutorial. Students who, through unavoidable and unplanned occurrences, are unable to attend a tutorial class one week are encouraged to work through the problems and attend a consultation session for discussion and solutions. Lectures and tutorials are live face-to-face. The seminar presentations (assessment task 4) are a key aspect of collective learning.

Examination(s)

The final examination will be held according to the published university schedule posted at http://timetable.anu.edu.au/. It is the student’s responsibility to be informed about changes to the examination timetable. The examination material of the final examination will be everything covered in the lectures.

Assessment Task 1

Fortnightly Online Canvas Quizzes

At the end of each fortnight, starting in week 2 there will be a Canvas quiz to be completed. The marks will be returned a week after the quiz is completed. There will be six quizzes which together will count 10 % toward the final mark. No quiz may be skipped. The quizzes will be an hour long, you have 24 hours to complete the quiz but once you begin you have an hour to complete.

Assessment Task 2

Mid-Semester Exam 26-8-2026

An in person mid-semester examination will be held in week 6 at the usual lecture time on Wednesday. It is the student’s responsibility to be informed about precise examination dates. The examination material of the mid-semester examination will be everything covered in the lectures including the last tutorial prior to the exam.

The exam will be approximately 90 minutes long.

More details will be announced in class two weeks prior to the exam.

Assessment Task 3

Essay & student interview

A 2500 word essay (+/- 10%) on a topic chosen from a list I will provide no later than 2 weeks before the due date. No late submissions will be accepted. Content beyond 2750 words (i.e. +10%) will not be marked. Extensions for the essay must be applied for using the Extension Request Tool on Canvas. The lecturer will schedule an interview with each student of up to 20 minutes to discuss the contents of the essay AFTER submission but PRIOR to the final marking. The interview is not a specific assessment task. The objective of the interview is for the student to relay their understanding of the topic, and for the lecturer to ask clarifying questions. 100% of the mark will apply to the essay itself. The interview is compulsory and the essay will not receive a final mark until it has been held.

Normal academic standards of referencing will apply. A failure to adequately attribute ideas is plagiarism. Harvard style in-text referencing is preferred, with footnotes or endnotes use to clear up ambiguities or to cover asides raised by the flow of argument that are not appropriately dealt with in the main text. All notes count towards the word limit. The reference list or bibliography does not.

If artificial intelligence has been used, the student must specify (a) the vehicle(s) used (e.g. Claude by Anthropic, Sonnet 4.6), (b) that all AI generated references have been manually checked for relevance, and included in the reference list, (c) specific tasks performed by AI (e.g. grammatical improvements). These specifications are to be presented on a single page behind the cover sheet but before the body of the essay. This will not count towards the word limit. It is the student's responsibility to ensure the veracity of any AI generated outputs. If artificial intelligence has NOT been used, please state that explicitly.

Assessment Task 4

Seminar presentation

All students will be randomly assigned to present a 10-15 minute in-person talk at one of the tutorials throughout the semester. The first timings and questions will be assigned in week 2, for delivery in week 4, week 3 for week 5, week 4 for week 7 (skipping the mid-semester exam), week 5 for week 8 etc. The questions will require the students to conduct additional research outside of the lecture materials.

Assessment Task 5

Final Exam

An in person final examination will be held according to the published university schedule posted at http://timetable.anu.edu.au/. It is the student’s responsibility to be informed about changes to the examination timetable. The examination material of the final examination will be everything covered in the lectures.

The exam will be approximately 2 hours long.

More details will be announced in class during week 10.

Academic Integrity

Academic integrity is a core part of the ANU culture as a community of scholars. The University’s students are an integral part of that community. The academic integrity principle commits all students to engage in academic work in ways that are consistent with, and actively support, academic integrity, and to uphold this commitment by behaving honestly, responsibly and ethically, and with respect and fairness, in scholarly practice.

The University expects all staff and students to be familiar with the academic integrity principle, the Academic Integrity Rule 2021, the Policy: Student Academic Integrity and Procedure: Student Academic Integrity, and to uphold high standards of academic integrity to ensure the quality and value of our qualifications.

The Academic Integrity Rule 2021 is a legal document that the University uses to promote academic integrity, and manage breaches of the academic integrity principle. The Policy and Procedure support the Rule by outlining overarching principles, responsibilities and processes. The Academic Integrity Rule 2021 commences on 1 December 2021 and applies to courses commencing on or after that date, as well as to research conduct occurring on or after that date. Prior to this, the Academic Misconduct Rule 2015 applies.

 

The University commits to assisting all students to understand how to engage in academic work in ways that are consistent with, and actively support academic integrity. All coursework students must complete the online Academic Integrity Module (Epigeum), and Higher Degree Research (HDR) students are required to complete research integrity training. The Academic Integrity website provides information about services available to assist students with their assignments, examinations and other learning activities, as well as understanding and upholding academic integrity.

Online Submission

You will be required to electronically sign a declaration as part of the submission of your assignment. Please keep a copy of the assignment for your records. Unless an exemption has been approved by the Associate Dean (Education) submission must be through Turnitin.

Hardcopy Submission

For some forms of assessment (hand written assignments, art works, laboratory notes, etc.) hard copy submission is appropriate when approved by the Associate Dean (Education). Hard copy submissions must utilise the Assignment Cover Sheet. Please keep a copy of tasks completed for your records.

Late Submission

• Late submission not permitted. If submission of assessment tasks without an extension after the due date is not permitted, a mark of 0 will be awarded.

Referencing Requirements

The Academic Skills website has information to assist you with your writing and assessments. The website includes information about Academic Integrity including referencing requirements for different disciplines. There is also information on Plagiarism and different ways to use source material. Any use of artificial intelligence must be properly referenced. Failure to properly cite use of Generative AI will be considered a breach of academic integrity.

Returning Assignments

2 to 3 weeks after submission.

Extensions and Penalties

Extensions and late submission of assessment pieces are covered by the Student Assessment (Coursework) Policy and Procedure. Extensions may be granted for assessment pieces that are not examinations or take-home examinations. If you need an extension, you must request an extension in writing on or before the due date. If you have documented and appropriate medical evidence that demonstrates you were not able to request an extension on or before the due date, you may be able to request it after the due date.

Resubmission of Assignments

None

Privacy Notice

The ANU has made a number of third party, online, databases available for students to use. Use of each online database is conditional on student end users first agreeing to the database licensor’s terms of service and/or privacy policy. Students should read these carefully. In some cases student end users will be required to register an account with the database licensor and submit personal information, including their: first name; last name; ANU email address; and other information.
In cases where student end users are asked to submit ‘content’ to a database, such as an assignment or short answers, the database licensor may only use the student’s ‘content’ in accordance with the terms of service – including any (copyright) licence the student grants to the database licensor. Any personal information or content a student submits may be stored by the licensor, potentially offshore, and will be used to process the database service in accordance with the licensors terms of service and/or privacy policy.
If any student chooses not to agree to the database licensor’s terms of service or privacy policy, the student will not be able to access and use the database. In these circumstances students should contact their lecturer to enquire about alternative arrangements that are available.

Distribution of grades policy

Academic Quality Assurance Committee monitors the performance of students, including attrition, further study and employment rates and grade distribution, and College reports on quality assurance processes for assessment activities, including alignment with national and international disciplinary and interdisciplinary standards, as well as qualification type learning outcomes.

Since first semester 1994, ANU uses a grading scale for all courses. This grading scale is used by all academic areas of the University.

Support for students

The University offers students support through several different services. You may contact the services listed below directly or seek advice from your Course Convener, Student Administrators, or your College and Course representatives (if applicable).

• ANU Health, safety & wellbeing for medical services, counselling, mental health and spiritual support
• ANU Accessibility for students with a disability or ongoing or chronic illness
• ANU Dean of Students for confidential, impartial advice and help to resolve problems between students and the academic or administrative areas of the University
• ANU Academic Skills supports you make your own decisions about how you learn and manage your workload.
• ANU Counselling promotes, supports and enhances mental health and wellbeing within the University student community.
• ANUSA supports and represents all ANU students