Past Questions of the Week
  1. What is an economic system?
  2. What are the two major dualities in looking at an economy?
  3. What are the two contrasting views of the role of self-interest?
  4. What are the two contrasting views of the state's objectives?
  5. What is the basic theory of economic growth?
  6. What are the two basic types of economic growth?
  7. What are the six different characteristics by which we might classify economic systems?
  8. What are some of the variants?  In theory, what are the constraints on the number of variants?
  9. According to Marx, what makes an economy capitalist? 
  10. According to Kornai, what makes an economy socialist? 
  11. What is the difference between communism and socialism, in political and economic systems?
  12. What are the different ways to measure output?
  13. What are the different types of efficiency?
  14. Which of these measures are likely to be complementary, and which are likely to conflict?
  15. What are the four fundamental problems we find in the comparison of economic system performance? 
  16. What is purchasing power parity (PPP)?  Why might market exchange rates not be equal to PPP?
  17. What is the Gershchenkron effect? What does it tell us about the comparison of economic performance?
  18. How do the major economies we cover tend to differ in their measured performance?
  19. Why might poor economies grow more slowly than rich economies?  Why might they grow faster?
  20. What is the long-run historical pattern of world growth?
  21. What are the chief characteristics of Feudalism? 
  22. How did Feudalism differ from the economic systems of the ancient civilizations? 
  23. What factors led to the Demise of Feudalism?
  24. What are the defining characteristics of Capitalism?  How do these compare with Marx's definition?
  25. How did the Renaissance affect the development of Capitalism?  What were the effects of the discovery of the New World and the Protestant Reformation?
  26. What were some of the major factors and events which led to the emergence of Capitalism from Feudalism? 
  27. What changes did Capitalism create?
  28. What was Mercantilism, and how did economists such as Smith, Hume, and Ricardo criticize it?
  29. What is the source of growth, according to Ricardo and Malthus?
  30. What are Bernstein's four conditions for economic growth?
  31. What is the iron law of wages?
  32. What is the Malthusian view of population growth, and what is the ultimate outcome?
  33. How does the Neoclassical view of economic growth differ from the classical view?
  34. How  does the Neoclassical view of population growth differ from the classical view?
  35. If economic development leads to lower population growth, why has population exploded?
  36. What role do international trade and finance play in the neoclassical view?
  37. Whare are the productive base, the relations of production, and the superstructure in the Marxian theory of economic change?  How do they interact to create economic change?
  38. What is historical materialism, and how does it rely on the Hegelian dialectic? 
  39. Why is the Marxian approach considered an hypothesis of revolutionary change? 
  40. In studying dynamic changes within capitalism, what did Schumpeter and the Austrians argue are the most important elements? 
  41. What four conditions are necessary for evolution to occur? 
  42. What implications does the modern theory of economic evolution have on economic development and structural change?
  43. How does it differ from the old view of evolution as gradual progress? 
  44. How does economic evolution differ from mainstream economic thought in terms of whether we choose our economy, our institutions, our technologies, or our policies, or whether history chooses for us? 
  45. How does the notion that competitive selection creates evolutionary change contrast with its effect on incentive and learning?
  46. What is the theory of labor value?  What is surplus value, and how do capitalists get it?
  47. In Marxian theory, why do capitalists accumulate?  How will this lead to the end of capitalism?
  48. In Marxian theory, why is it necessary for capitalists to maintain a Reserve Army of the Unemployed? 
  49. What are the chief criticisms of Marx's theory of the end of capitalism? 
  50. How did the basic beliefs of the anarchists (e.g., Bakunin, Proudhon) contrast with those of Marxism?
  51. Why did Marx call reformers like Owen and Fourier "utopian" socialists?
  52. How did Bernstein, Tugan-Baranovsky, and Kautsky try to revise Marxian theory? 
  53. What were Lenin's contributions to Marxian theory, in terms of describing the working of capitalism and its self-destruction? 
  54. What were Lenin's views on the role of the revolutionary, and how did this differ from Marx's view?
  55. What was Smith's Invisible Hand?   What does it suggest for a truly laissez-faire economy? 
  56. What was Mill's argument about the separation of production and distribution?  What policies did he advocate? 
  57. What is competitive general equilibrium?  How does Marshallian partial equilibrium differ from Walrasian general equilibrium? 
  58. What is Pareto Optimality?  How does the Kaldor Compensation Criterion make Pareto Optimality a more useful concept? 
  59. What are the three perfect market conditions?
  60. What is the Arrow-Debreu existence theorem?
  61. What is the first fundamental theorem of welfare economics, and what does it imply?
  62. What is the second fundamental theorem of welfare economics, and what does it imply?
  63. What is the Theorem of the Second Best, and what does it imply for a market economy that fails to meet perfect market conditions? 
  64. What is the Coase Theorem, and what does it imply for the efficiency of a free market economy? 
  65. What criticisms did Hayek and the Austrian school (esp. Hayek) make of the Arrow-Debreu approach to judging the efficiency of capitalism?  What important role do market prices play, beyond clearing markets? 
  66. What is Schumpeter's model of creative destruction?
  67. What is the Prisoner's Dilemma model, and what does it predict?  How does it compare to Smith's Invisible Hand?  When might the Prisoner's Dilemma work in society's interest, and when might it work against society's interest? 
  68. What is the theory of public goods, and how does it compare to the Prisoner's Dilemma model? 
  69. What is market failure?  Give examples.  What possible interventions could make a market economy perform better? 
  70. Why does Keynes' General Theory suggest for the appropriate role of government in a capitalist economy?  How does the monetarist view contrast with this?
  71. What are the other important economic justifications for government intervention in a market economy? 
  72. What are the two major contrasting views of the state? What conditions allowed for the creation of the state? 
  73. How does Olson explain the changing objectives of the bandit chief, once he becomes stationary? 
  74. Olson argues that market exchanges are commonplace even in societies without well-defined and enforceable property rights, but without these rights certain types of transactions necessary to economic development cannot occur.  Explain. 
  75. What is public failure?  How might government intervention fail to make a market economy work better?  What are the major reasons for this? 
  76. What is Arrow's General Impossibility Theorem? What does it say about social choice and political coalitions? What are its implications for deriving an efficient, stable, fair, and preferred government economic policy? 
  77. Why might political entrepreneurship in a democracy lead to unstable and even less-preferred policy choices?  What does Madisonian Liberalism imply for the long-term? 
  78. What is Olson's theory of distributional coalitions?  How do they differ from encompassing coalitions? 
  79. Why are distributional coalitions more successful at organizing, and what are the implications of their success?
  80. What are some of the unique environmental, cultural, and historical factors affecting the U.S. economy?
  81. What is the limited liability corporation, when was it developed, and what effect did it have on U.S. industrial organization?
  82. How has U.S. trade policy evolved over time (i.e., before and after the civil war, before and after the Great Depression)?
  83. In broad terms, how has the economic role of the U.S. government evolved over time?  What new responsibilities has the federal government accepted in the last century?
  84. Many argue that the U.S. government just keeps getting bigger.  Put this into historical and relative perspective. 
  85. What are the largest components of U.S. government spending, and what components have grown most rapidly in the last several decades?
  86. How has the postwar period compared to the prewar period, in terms of per-capita GDP growth, inflation, and macroeconomic stability?
  87. During the postwar period, when was growth and inflation highest, and when were they lowest? 
  88. Why are some economists concerned about the current levels of U.S. consumption, savings, the government deficit, and the trade deficit? 
  89. Why is protectionism often seen as a prisoner's dilemma?  What are the encompassing and distributional interests?
  90. What are the basic arguments for and against globalization?What was the Tokugawa Shogunate?  Describe its economic, social, and foreign policies.
  91. What was the Meiji Restoration?  How did Japan change after this?  What role did the government play in Japan’s transformation?
  92. Explain the results of Japan’s modernization strategy prior to WWII, and the role played by the Zaibatsu.  
  93. How did the American occupation affect Japan’s postwar development?
  94. What is the Iron Triangle?  In what way was the relationship between government and business in Japan before the war similar to after the war? 
  95. Contemporary Japanese economic performance has recently been attributed, in a major way, to the vital role of the state in the Japanese economy, especially the role of MITI. What is the nature of the state's role in the Japanese economic system?
  96. What is the Japanese keiretsu, or "main bank" system?  How did the keiretsu system affect Japan's economic growth before and after 1990? 
  97. What are the “three treasures” of Japanese employment?  Why is Japan sometimes considered a dual economy?
  98. Why did Japan stopped growing?  What caused the bubble economy and the banking crisis?  What role was played by the Bank of Japan?
  99. Why did Herbert Giersch argue that “Eurosclerosis” created higher unemployment?”  Compare this to the efficiency wage argument.
  100. Why did France establish its postwar system of planning?  Consider both the political and economic reasons.
  101. How did the French system of indicative planning work, and how did it perform?  To what extent does the system still work?
  102. How did the French welfare system change after the 1970s, and how might this help explain France’s current unemployment problems?
  103. What were Mitterrand’s socialist reforms?  How did they affect the French economy?  Why were they discontinued?
  104. What is the French record on nationalization and privatization?  What was the Ni-Ni policy? 
  105. What are the particular government policies of Germany, and how does each fit into the two sides of the Social Market Economy?
  106. What was the German Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle), and why did it occur?  Why did it stop?
  107. How did reunification affect Germany’s economy, and how did it affect the rest of Europe?  Why?  Explain. 
  108. What role does the Swedish government play in business-labor relations?
  109. What are active labor market policies?  How have these policies affected the Swedish labor market?
  110. What is centralized collective bargaining, and how does it work in Sweden?
  111. What role does the Swedish government play in capital markets?  What expansion of its role did Sweden consider, and how would this have affected Sweden’s economy?
  112. How does Sweden’s role of government differ from that of France?
  113. What role did France and Germany play in the creation of the European Union?  Why didn’t the U.K. and Sweden delay their entrance?
  114. How did the desire for European monetary union affect France’s monetary and fiscal policies after 1971 and 1983?
  115. Compare the postwar economic performance of the four western European economies considered in the text.  How are they similar, and how are they different?  To what extent are these differences the result of unique government policies in each country?
  116. What are the Pareto Conditions?  What did Barone and others see as the role of the central planner in optimizing economic performance? 
  117. What is Material Balance Planning?  How does it work?  What are its major weaknesses? 
  118. What are the major institutions of the classical socialist economy?
  119. How is market socialism different from classical socialism?  What contradictions are inherent in market socialism? 
  120. What are Kornai's five blocks of the classical socialist economy?  How do they fit together as a system? 
  121. What is the Fel'dman approach to rapid economic growth?  What are the major components of this policy, and how do they fit together?  Is this approach possible in a market capitalist economy?  Is this approach consistent with extensive growth or intensive growth? 
  122. Contrast the systems and policies of War Communism and the New Economic Policy under Lenin.  What purposes was each of these systems designed to serve?  What effects did they have on economic performance? 
  123. What led to the end of the NEP?  What replaced it? 
  124. Explain the debate between the teleologists and the geneticists after the death of Lenin.  What role did Bukharin, Trotsky, Preobrazhensky, and Stalin play in this debate? 
  125. What is the historical record of the Soviet economy's development and performance, both in industry and agriculture?  How was each organized and coordinated? 
  126. What is the difference between intensive and extensive growth? 
  127. Why did growth in the USSR slow after the 1960s? 
  128. To what extent was the Soviet Union able to reform its political and economic system in the years between Stalin and Gorbachev?
  129. What were the five policies of Uskorenye in Gorbachev's 12th Five-Year-Plan?  What role did Glasnost or "openness" play?  Why were these policies of "acceleration" unsuccessful?  How did the "basic theses" (Osnovanye Polozheniya) of 1987 represent a shift in thinking about reform in the Soviet Union?  Was the new policy of Perestroika or "restructuring" successful?  Explain. 
  130.  Prior to 1957, what was the Chinese approach to creating socialism
  131. What was the Great Leap Forward?  How did this approach differ from more traditional socialist approaches?  What did it try to do?  What were its effects?
  132. What was the Cultural Revolution?  How did it affect the Chinese economy?
  133. What were the major economic and political events in China under Mao Zedong? 
  134. How did Chairman Mao's vision of Chinese development differ from most other socialist economies?

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