Instructor: Valery  Lazarev
E-mail:  vlazarev@mail.uh.edu
Web-site: www.uh.edu/~vlazarev/3332
Phone:  (713) 743-3821
Office:  234M
Office hours:   MW 12.00 noon - 1.00 pm or by appointment.

Class will meet at 10-11:30 TTH  in McElhinney 102.

Tentative course syllabus
This course discusses the economic development of Russian Empire - Soviet Union -Russia (and its neighbors) and its interaction with political processes. The period covered stretches from the mid 19th century to the year 2002, with the major emphasis on the period of "classic" Soviet socialism, 1930s-1980s.
Russian economic history (including recent) is marked by government intervention in the operation of national economy that is unmatched in extent, although not unique in its character.
Russia/Soviet Union faced the same sort of challenges as many other developing countries did (and do). It responded to these challenges with a series of radical policy turns that determined its winding path of development. Positive economic analysis of these policy choices and their consequences is the central theme of this course. Other major issues will include:
1. "Backwardness," technological transfer and "catching-up:" the two Russian industrializations.
2. Theory of socialism as a centrally planned economy, its critique, and the real mode of operation of the Soviet socialist economy.
3. Problems of mixed economies and market socialism
4. Coercion vs. economic incentives.
5. Economics of transition: why socialism was abandoned and what comes next.

This course is intended for students interested in comparative economics, economics of post-communist transition, economic history, political economy of development, as well as for those who just would like to learn what was and is going on in the "Northern Eurasia" – the Russian Federation and its neighbors.

Prerequisites. There are no formal prerequisites for this course, although some background in economics and basic knowledge of modern world history will be very helpful.

Course materials: Required text - Gregory and Stuart. Russian and Soviet Economic Structure and Performance – will be available from the UH bookstore. Additional reading will include Gregory. Before Command, and a number of papers by various scholars.

Class format: Lectures interchanging with student presentations.

Course requirements: An essay and presentation in class, based on a paper picked up from the list of suggested readings, and final exam.