MA and PhD Students

Instructor

Dr. Chuang is a Distinguished Professor of the Department of Economics at National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan. He currently serves as the Dean of College of Social Sciences and the Director of Taiwan Study Center at NCCU. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from University of Chicago in 1993. He was assistant research fellow at the Institute of Economics, Academia Sinica, from 1993 to 1994 and since August 1994 has taught at National Chengchi University, where he served as an associate professor at the Department of Economics from 1994 to 1998 and Chairman in 2010-2011. He was a Visiting Professor at Georgetown University, USA, in 1999 and Fulbright Scholar at Fairbank Center for East Asian Research of Harvard University in 2003. During the summer term from 2005 to 2008, he was invited as a Guestprofessor at Free University-Berlin in Germany.

Course Objectives

This course provides a comprehensive overview of the modern Chinese economy, and discusses several important aspects of the Chinese growth and development, including the major shifts in economic philosophy through time, the macroeconomic trends, agriculture and the rural industrialization, the economic development of urban areas, international l trade and foreign investment, as well as the challenges facing China

today.

Course Description

1. Introduction to the Course

2. Introduction to the Chinese Economy

 The Chinese economy before 1949

 The Socialist era 1949-1978

 Market transition since 1978

 The urban-rural divide.

3. Patterns of Growth and Development

 Growth and structural change

 Population growth and one-child policy

 Labor and human capital

 Incomes, inequality, and poverty

 Macroeconomic Trends and Cycles

 Rebalancing China's Economic Growth

4. The Rural and Urban Economy

 Rural Agriculture

 Rural industrialization

 Urban ownership and governance

 Urban structural change: industry, energy, and infrastructure

 Technology policy and the knowledge-based economy

 The Chinese financial system

5. China and the World Economy

 International Trade

 Foreign Investment

6. Contemporary Issues in China

 A look at the future of the Chinese economy

 Looking into the Chinese manufacturing competitiveness

 The Chinese consumption pattern

 The environmental cost of Chinese growth

Teaching Approach

Lectures and class discussion

Course Requirements/Grading Standards

In-lecture discussions 30%

Final term paper (presentation and essay) 70%

Textbooks & References

The main textbooks for this course are

1. Naughton, Barry (2007). The Chinese Economy: Transition and Growth. MIT Press.
2. Lardy, Nicholas (2012). Sustaining China's Economic Growth after the Global Financial Crisis. PIIE Press.

We may also discuss articles from Economist and Financial Times as well as some contemporary books on the Chinese economy