Course Outline (Syllabus)

Readings in the Library And Their Call Numbers

SPRING TERM ANNOUNCEMENTS

Grading: Grading will be based on exams (35%, 50%), in-class (+-5%) and seminar paper(15%).

Final Exam: TBA.

Miscellaneous Info and Changes in the Schedule (updated frequently):

• There will be an extra lecture on Friday, Jan 11^th from 10:30  by prof. Roland.
• Prof Palda will be lecturing in the second week of April.
  

Academic Writing Requirement

Selct a field from a transition  and do literature survey. I should approve the selected filed for two reasons: It should not be easy nor hard one and should be well focused. It should not be the same as your classmate is working on. The timetable is as follows:

• Field selection: Mid February
• The final draft should be handed in ONE WEEK before the final exam week to me. This deadline should not affect the requirements and deadlines set by your English lecturer.
• There will be three excercise sessions reserved for a brief presentation of you survey. The presentation should be about 20 minutes long.

• Anu- FDI
• Vitezslav-EU Integration
• Jan-Banking and Firms
  
• Lesya-Corruption
• Pavel-Stock markets in transition economies
• Emilia-Govt. Incetives&Fiscal
• Andrei-Regulation of Firms&Corporate Governance
• Joshua-Labor in Russia
• Pavlo-Detecting missing exports and imports in transition(China-Hong-Kong and Ukraine-Poland)
  
• Maria- LMF
• Lubomira??
• 
  

• Tue-Jan, Emilia, Pevel, Stanislava
• Wed-Anu, Lubomira, Lesya, Andrei
  
• Fri-Vitezslav, Pavlo, Josh, Maria
  

FALL TERM ANNOUNCEMENTS

Final Exam: Friday, December 14^th, from 14:00 CET.
Midterm: Friday, October 19^th, during excercise session from 15:00 CET.

Miscellaneous Info and Changes in the Schedule (updated frequently):

• There will be an extra lecture on Tuesday, Sept 4^th from 18:00 till 19:00 by prof. Svejnar.
• There will be a lecture on Friday, Sept 7^th, instead of the Seminar Session.
• There will be a free time the weeks after for these lectures.
• These is no lecture on Tuesday, 11^th .

These is no lecture on Tuesday, 18^th .
• On Wednesday 12 ^th, at regular time, Jan Hanousek will have a lecture on inflation measurement and biases.
• On Wednesday 19^th, at regular time, Slava Vinogradov will have a lecture on human capital.
• The Monday, October 22^nd, seminar is an integral part of the course. Paper "Institutional Change and Firm Creation in East-Central Europe: An Embedded Politics Approach" by Gerry McDermott is here: http://www.cerge-ei.cz/pdf/events/papers/011022_t.pdf
• Tuesday and Wednesday lectures (October 23^rd and October 24 ^th) will be given by Prof. Jan Svejnar. Please read these two articles before the lectures: Berg, A., E. Borensztein, R. Sahay, and J. Zettelmeyer: The Evolution of Output in Transition Economies: Explaining the Differences, Nobel Symposium, September 1999. IMF WP/99/73

and Munich, Daniel, Jan Svejnar and Katherine Terrell, Returns to Human Capital under the Communist Wage Grid and during the Transition to a Market Economy: Retrospective Evidence from Czech Micro Data, Working Paper No. 272, The William Davidson Institute, University of Michigan Business School, December 1999, at http://eres.bus.umich.edu/docs/workpap-dav/wp272.pdf
• Tuesday and Wednesday lectures (October 30^th and October 31^st ) will be given by Prof. Gerard Roland. He will cover Chapter 2 of his book.
• Mind the deadline for the first draft! Late submissions will be apprecieted (with negative points in your evaluation, of course).
• Wednesday lecture on November 7^th is re-scheduled to Friday , November 9^th in order to allow you to attend the meeting with the director.
• As of November 20th: I have not received the first drafts of your term paper from all of you yet.
• Week Nov19-24: prof. Roland will lecture.
• Mind the deadline: The final date for your critique is Dec 7th, excercise session.
• The presentations are schedulef for Thursday and Friday, Week Dec 3-7 .
• 
  

Academic Writing Requirement

Selct a paper from a transition field by Friday's excercise session on October 5^th. I recommend to look at CERGE-EI working papers, WDI working papers or CEPR papers on transition economics. You can also have a look at these journals: J. of Comparative  Economics, Economics of Transition, Emerging Market Review; or have a look at the non-listed chapters of the recommended books (like Quandt-Triska). Be prepare to have a "backup" option since each of you should have a different paper. I should approve the selected paper for two reasons: It should not be easy nor hard one. The timetable is as follows:

• Paper selection: October 5^th,
• First draft, handed both to me and you English teacher: End of October,
• You will have my comments and English comments back by mid November,
• The final draft should be handed in by December 7th.
• There will be two excercise sessions reserved for a brief presentation of you critique. The presentation should be 15minutes long at most.

List of the selected papers (updated, as of Mon, Oct 29):

1. "Transition with Labour Supply" by Tito Boeri at: http://ideas.uqam.ca/ideas/data/Papers/izaizadpsdp257.html
2. "The evolution of stock markets in transition economies" by M. Rockinger and G. Urga - Journal of Comparative Economics 28, 456-472 (2000).
3. The Distribution of Wages in Transition Countries by Andrew Newell using Branko Milanowich: Explaining the increase in inequality during transition Economics of Transition Vol (7) 1999, 299-341.
4. Aghion P., Schankerman M., Competition, entry and the social returns to infrastructure in transition economies, CEPR Discussion paper series No. 2052
5. "Currency boards: The ultimate fix?" by Atish R.Ghosh, Anne-Marie Gule and Holger C. Wolf, IMF staff paper serie.
6. "The Post-Unification German Labor Market" by Holger Bonin andKlaus F. Zimmermann , IZA Discussion Paper No. 185 .
7. "The Role of Medium-term Fiscal Frameworks for Transition Countries: The Case of Bulgaria" by B. Horvath and I. Szekely, IMF WP no. WP/01/11.
8. "Countries: The Case of Bulgaria" by B. Horvath and I. Szekely, IMF WP no. WP/0 1/11.
9. Susanto Basu and David D. Li "Corruption and Reform", The William Davidson Institute Working Paper No 55.
10. J Barkley Rosser Jr., Marina V. Rosser, Ehsan Ahmed Income Inequality and the Informal Economy in Transition Economies
11. E. A. Leamer, Chapter 3, Access to Western markets and Eastern effort levels", pp 503-526.
12. Boyer, George R. “The Historical Background of the Communist Manifesto”, Journal of Economic Perspectives-Vol.12, Num.4,Fall 1998 (EHist).