Course Overview

The class is taught in English and will examine Taiwan's economic development from about 1860 to the present. During the first class, I will offer an overview of Taiwan's economic growth since the late-19th century. The course will then be organized topically. We will start by examining Taiwan's important crops (tea, sugar and rice) and how these affected Taiwan's economic development from roughly 1860-1970. Then we will briefly look at the development of Taiwan's natural resources. Finally we will consider Taiwan's rise as a manufacturing power. We will start with a look at Taiwan's first labor-intensive manufactured export, woven hats, which were produced and exported in the pre-war era, but then mainly focus on Taiwan's post-war export boom and its modern growth. There will be seven groups projects based on the readings listed below and a short individual project based on analyzing Taiwan's post-war economic statistics.

Learning Achievement

When you finish this course, you should have a much better idea how Taiwan rose from poverty to relative prosperity

Competence

Course prerequisites

No prerequisites. There will be a lot of statistics but no mathematical modeling. Students taking this course usually come from many different departments

Grading Philosophy

Course schedule

Course type

Online Course Requirement

Instructor

Kelly Barton Olds

Other information

(College of Social Sciences) Department of Economics,
(College of Social Sciences) Graduate Institute of Economics *Registration eligibility: juniors and above, and graduate students.

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