Macroeconomics Seminar: Traveling Economists in China

There are two primary goals in this course.

CURRICULUM TOOBOX HOME ​

The first is to understand the incredible economic development of China over the course of the last two generations within the context of a global economy in which extreme poverty is still common, and global inequality between countries is increasing by some measures. There is no better setting to obtain a deeper understanding of growth, poverty, and economic development than China today. We will examine both the theoretical and empirical foundations that shape the way economists understand economic growth in China and around the globe. We will talk with local experts in Chinese development and business, visit local Chinese firms and factories, have a class exchanges with Chinese college students studying at Shanghai’s East China Normal University, a travel to the two major economic powerhouse cities of China—Shanghai and Beijing—but also visit western, rural, and poorer parts of China that still define the lives of most Chinese today.
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The second goal of this class is to refine our abilities to think like economists. By focusing on the ways that incentives shape behavior, economists have gained new insights into the determinants of difference across people, cultures, societies, countries, and time. Economics is a powerful tool that can be used to make each of us much more perceptive observers. As a result, developing a deeper understanding of economics is an important part of becoming a better traveler. In the words of Samuel Johnson, “The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.” This is exactly what economics aims to do as well, and it is the reason why using economics to enrich our travel can magnify the value of both. In this class in which we travel and learn economics, our goal is to become both better economists and the kinds of travelers that get the most out of their experiences.

What are the learning goals for this course?

• Develop the ability to build economic models and learn how to think in terms of these economic models (knowledge, inquiry, reasoning);
• Understand both the theory and the empirics of economic growth (knowledge, inquiry, reasoning);
• Consider interdisciplinary approaches to understanding growth and poverty (Knowledge, inquiring, reasoning);
• Develop analytical and critical thinking skills (inquiry, reasoning);
• Improve written and oral communication skills (communication);
• Better understand the economic and cultural history of China and learn from the chance to interact, both professionally and informally, with a wide variety of Chinese in a number of different settings (intercultural literacy, citizenship, vocation, well-being).

How do you measure student learning and development outcomes?

1. Traveling Economics Journal: One of the primary purposes of this class is to develop skills at seeing the world as economists, and understanding the incentives and institutions that lead to different behaviors across peoples and cultures. The Traveling Economist book that we will use in this class illustrates (hopefully) how this can be done.
   Students are required to keep regular journal entries in which I want them to “think like an economist” in analyzing and explaining the things that you see during our trip. As this is a seminar class in which students are asked to bring together everything that they have learned in their economics courses while at Cornell, any economic insight that they can bring to their discussion of their experiences during this trip—from this course or another course—is appropriate.
   There is no strict page limit for this assignment, but given that we will be in China for 21 days, roughly 20 pages of writing (typewritten) is appropriate. However, it is the QUALITY, APPLICABILITY, READABILITY, and ORIGONALITY of the analysis will determine grade on this assignment. In brief, I am looking for evidence that students are thinking deeply about economics as we conduct our travels.
2. Exam: One final exam focused on the classroom and reading material.
3. Class Participation: Class participation will count for 100 points toward the final grade and is assigned on the basis of both quantity and quality of participation. Given that this is a seminar class, students will devote a substantial amount of classroom time to discussing reading assignments. For all of the assigned readings students should be able to:
   1. summarize the reading assignments,
   2. answer questions regarding the reading assignments,
   3. raise questions regarding the reading assignments,
   4. understand how the reading assignments relate to previous reading assignments.

In what ways does the curriculum leverage the unique learning opportunities of your host context?
China is a particularly great place to be a careful observer of economics. By this, I mean an observer of incentives and how people react to incentives. No place on the globe has experienced the change—both good and bad—that China has experienced over the last 70 years. From the Japanese occupation, to the civil war, to the Communist revolution led by Mao, to the Great Leap Forward, to the Cultural Revolution, to the economic revolution of Deng, China has tested more good and bad economic practices than anywhere else on the globe. In addition, China provides a unique cultural experience in which to examine the interplay between economics and culture, and how one impacts the other. The ancient history of China and the role of long-lasting institutions there provides an interesting contrast to the newer, more democratic, and more flexible social and governmental institutions of the US. Finally, the rising global prominence of China makes understanding Chinese culture, Chinese society, and the Chinese economy absolutely critical to a wide range of professions.

To what extent is your course curriculum integrated with curricula of the students’ home institutions?
This course serves as a capstone seminar for all of the Economics and Business majors at Cornell, which includes majors in Management, Finance, Business Analytics, and Actuarial Science. It is an opportunity for students to not only bring together everything that they have learned in their liberal arts coursework at Cornell College, but to apply it in real world settings that are directly applicable to a wide range of future professional goals.

Did you consult any resources on education abroad that were particularly helpful in designing this course?
I have served as the program director and lead faculty member of the Associated College’s of the Midwest’s (ACM) study abroad program in Botswana, Africa in 2009. Since that time, I have been a faculty advisor on both the ACM’s Botswana and Shanghai off-campus study programs. I have also taken students to study abroad in Argentina and Uruguay, as well as participated in study abroad programs in New Zealand. I very large part of my profession career has been devoted to providing students with quality educational opportunities abroad.
In preparing this course, I worked closely with Cornell College’s Off-Campus studies office as well as the International Students and Exchange office at East China Normal University.

If you feel that you have valuable information to contribute to this project that is not addressed in the body of this survey, please elaborate here.
Students visited a wide variety of businesses in China that broadly provided them with some experiences that illustrated the diversity of the Chinese economy. We visited the Ka Vou Dental company, a rapidly growing privately owned health care supply business in Shanghai; Mr Zhou and Sons box factory which is family owned; Shanghai super computer center which is a government owned enterprise; Bao Steel, the second largest steel manufacturer in the world which is government owned; General Motors Shanghai which is an multinational company; the Shanghai fake market; and the Guizhou Big Data Exchange Center which is government owned enterprise.

Students participated in two service learning trips during the class, one at a rural elementary school and one at a rural middle school. Cornell College students taught an English class, led a physical education class for the entire school, and also participated in a cultural exchange dance event.
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Students also visited the Great Wall, Beijing’s Forbidden City and Tiananmen square, the the bund and historic Shanghai, took a day trip to Hangzhou, visited Guizhou Huang-guo-shu Great Falls, and stayed in a traditional Miao village

Additional Resources

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Bio

Todd A. Knoop
Affiliation: Cornell College | tknoop@cornellcollege.edu
Todd A. Knoop, PhD, is the David Joyce Professor of Economics and Business at Cornell College. He has taught economics in many different countries on four continents, and is looking for an opportunity to teach economics in Antarctica. He is the author of multiple articles as well as the books Business Cycle Economics: Understanding Recessions and Depressions from Boom to Bust, Global Finance in Emerging Market Economies, Recessions and Depressions: Understanding Business Cycles, Modern Financial Macroeconomics, and The Traveling Economist: Using Economics to Think about what Makes us All Different and the Same.

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Basics:

Education Abroad Program Name	Macroeconomics Seminar: Traveling Economists in China
Level	Undergraduate
Number of Credits for Course	4
Number of Credits for Education Abroad Program	4
Does this course carry major/minor credit? Elective credit?	Major Credit
Typical Enrollment	15
Language of Instruction	English
Duration	Short-term: 3-4 weeks
Time Spent On-Site	Short-term: 3-4 weeks
Last Taught	December 2017
How many times has this course been taught?	4
Curriculum Strong Points/Innovations	Extensive classroom seminar experience focused on using travel as a means to "think like an economists" and think critically about the world around you, coupled with intensive experiential learning as we travel to three very different parts of China, talk with business people at different types of companies, and participate in service learning at local rural schools.