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This site is intended to help you to gain access to some materials that you may find useful while working on the Asian Development and the Global Economy modules BSB00135-2 (level 2) BSB00136-3 (level 3). If you have any suggestions for improving the site feel free to drop me a message to j.ramsay@staffs.ac.uk.
If you are having trouble understanding some economics terminology or jargon then you may find this dictionary of economic terms useful. If the word you are interested in does not appear in the dictionary above, then this alternative dictionary may have what you are looking for.
The section below consists of links to other web-sites around the world that you may find useful. NB I don't control any of these sites, and the links WILL go dead from time to time. (The average life-span of a web-site is 95 days!) I will not be slavishly maintaining all of these links every minute of every day. So, please be patient, most of them will be working. If you come across any other sites that are relevant to this module I would be very happy to receive them and add them to this site. It is perhaps worth pointing out that studying on this module is NOT a competitive activity. There is no policy of 'marking to the curve'. In other words there are no limitations on the number of students who can get high marks. Consequently, sharing information, such as good web-site URLs, will not threaten your performance in the assessment process.
Warning: In general, unless a website is on an official Government or University server, the safest policy is to assume that its content is no more reliable than something that a bloke told you in the pub last night. Do not assume that because it is on the web it must be true! I am afraid that you must use your own common-sense and judgment when accessing and using the material on anything other than government or university sites. My advice is to read everything with an extremely skeptical eye.
You can find much detailed advice on how to use the web effectively in an academic context by going to this URL:
http://www.staffs.ac.uk/schools/business/bsadmin/staff/s3/jamr.htm
and clicking on the link called 'The Dangers of getting material from the web'
This is an excellent portal to a huge range of carefully selected sites that have been vetted and are known to contain useful and valid material: Social Science Gateway. NB this site will be of use whatever kind of academic enquiry you have in a whole range of different subjects/modules.
Here is the abstract from the paper on the next site:
In the second half of 1997 many Asian emerging economies suffered large declines in both their currency and equity markets. This Asian financial turmoil arose primarily from three interrelated sets of factors, namely: shortcomings in the financial sector at a time when global liquidity conditions were accommodative, concerns about balance of payments developments, and contagion across economies. The major channel of contagion appears to have been the sudden realisation by the market - after the sharp depreciation of the Thai baht - that a number of other Asian economies had vulnerabilities similar to those in Thailand.
Daly, H., 'Against free trade: Neoclassical and steady-state perspectives'
UNCTAD on FDI - type 'FDI' into their search engine.
A more general reading list on FDI
The Asian Human Rights Commission
Asia Monitor Resource Center (AMRC) based in Hong Kong is :"...an independent non-government organization (NGO) which focuses on Asian labour concerns." Warning. This is not an academic site, and although some of the data on the site may be of use, you should not copy it's tabloid writing style or assume that take any opinions expressed there are necessarily valid or reliable.
An excellent portal to a huge range of carefully selected sites that have been vetted and are known to contain useful and valid material: Social Science Gateway. NB this site will be of use whatever kind of academic enquiry you have in a whole range of different subjects/modules.
If you are looking for data on the Japanese economy then this site: Keize Koho Centre has a mind-boggling array of data in the document 'Japan: An International Comparison'.
International Trade
The Role of the Government
Keiretsu
Keiretsu and management practices in Japan: resilience amid change, Dedoussis, V.
Japanese corporate activities in Asia, Manifold, D.
The Keiretsu system: cracking or crumbling?, Ostrom, D.
The Financial System
The Labour Market
The Economic Crisis in the 1990's
The Computer and Electronics Industries
The Telecommunications Industry
The Car Industry
Miscellaneous
Alternative Sources of Information on Japan
Economic History
In general, your grasp of referencing techniques and conventions was appalling! I issued instructions for the approved referencing method during the semester and repeatedly pointed you towards details on my personal web-site. Failure/refusal (delete as appropriate in your own case) to follow instructions and suggestions sends the following powerful message to your markers:
Look, maybe you did tell me where to look to find out how to reference my work properly, but basically (sic), I couldn’t be bothered. I have no idea what I'm doing, so I've just made a naff referencing system up by myself. Now give me a good mark.
FDI and the role Government were the most popular questions, however, very few of you bothered to discuss the problem of establishing if, and how, the effects of FDI or Government intervention may have actually caused changes in the economy. I discussed this topic many times in class, but despite the many hints I dropped about the importance of the problem, a large number of you chose to ignore it. At the very least you should have discussed and explained, in detail, how changes in FDI or levels of government intervention might have caused changes in the economy. Simply assuming that, say, raised levels of FDI will increase the rate of growth will not do.
A disturbingly large number of you did little more transcribe the relevant sections of the recommended text, casually re-worded with a minimum expenditure of effort, from the book to your assignment. This was despite my repeated recommendations that you have a look at more than one source of information and to use the library. This is not a tactic that is likely to get you high marks! Rather it sends your markers the following message:
I know this is not what you want, but I’m going to interpret every question you ask as: “Read the relevant chapter in the recommended textbook and then copy bits of it out as your answer. NB re-word it slightly as you copy it so that the plagiarism isn’t too obvious.” Well, I’ve done that little bit of copying that you asked for, now where is my 75% mark?
· Although the failure rate on the module was very low, average marks were not particularly high. One of the main reasons for this was the fact that many of you appeared to spend a lot of time producing one very good answer and then hardly any time on the other question to produce a rather poor answer. This is a poor tactic, and another guaranteed method of reducing your overall mark. If you want to obtain very high marks in an assignment that has two parts or questions, then you have to present two very good answers, not one very good one and one crap one. I would like every student to get a very high mark; but I do need your assistance if I am to achieve this objective!
If you remain unsure of what is expected of you please have a look at my personal web-site (http://www.staffs.ac.uk/schools/business/bsadmin/staff/s3/jamr.htm) which is designed for your benefit only, and contains chapter and verse on how to get decent grades.
Regards
John Ramsay
The following links takes you to unmarked and marked copies of a genuine student assignment on a module in South East Asian Economic Development. The paragraph numbers have been added - they were not in the original. This has been done to make it easier to discuss the work in class.
Sample assignment - marked (NB this will only be made available after the unmarked version has been discussed by all relevant classes on all sites).