Politics and Financial Crises

Dozent/in	Prof. Dr. Michaël Aklin
Veranstaltungsart	Masterseminar
Code	FS201442
Semester	Frühjahrssemester 2020
Durchführender Fachbereich	Politikwissenschaft
Studienstufe	Bachelor Master
Termin/e	Mi, 19.02.2020, 12:15 - 14:00 Uhr, Externer Standort, HS 6 Mi, 03.06.2020, 08:15 - 19:00 Uhr, 3.B57 Do, 04.06.2020, 08:15 - 19:00 Uhr, 3.B57 Fr, 05.06.2020, 08:15 - 19:00 Uhr, 3.B57
Umfang	2 Semesterwochenstunden
Turnus	Blockveranstaltung
Inhalt	Financial crises occur almost everwhere almost all the time (Kindleberger 1979, Reinhart and Rogoff 2009, Calomiris and Haber 2014). Banks go bankrupt, inflation explodes, and governments regularly fail to pay their debtors. Financial crises have nefarious consequences on people’s welfare, as they are linked to unemployment, low pay raises, public health issues, and social unrest. This course will study the role played by domestic and international politics in the onset and the solutions to financial crises. The course will begin by discussing the key role played by finance in modern economic and political systems. Then, we will combine insights from political economy and economic history to understand the political origins of financial crises and try to answer the question: why do politicians so often fail to put good regulations into place? Why aren’t key institutions designed in a way that reduces the odds of crises? Time permitting, we will conclude by turning our attention to the aftermath of crises: how do countries respond to these events? Why do some engage in austerity measures (Blyth 2013)? Who learns and improves?
Sprache	Englisch
Anmeldung	Open for advanced BA-students in Political Science. In case of too many interested students priority is given to MA-students.
Abschlussform / Credits	Aktive Teilnahme, Essay (benotet) / 4 Credits
Hinweise	Studienschwerpunkt: Internationale Beziehungen
Hörer-/innen	Nein
Kontakt	aklin@pitt.edu
Material	Wird auf der Online-Plattform OLAT zur Verfügung gestellt.