2021 Faculty Courses School of Engineering Undergraduate major in Industrial Engineering and Economics
Comparative Economic Analysis
- Academic unit or major
- Undergraduate major in Industrial Engineering and Economics
- Instructor(s)
- Kyoko Yamamuro
- Class Format
- Lecture/Exercise
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - 7-8 Mon (W351) / 7-8 Thu (W351)
- Class
- -
- Course Code
- IEE.B335
- Number of credits
- 110
- Course offered
- 2021
- Offered quarter
- 3Q
- Syllabus updated
- Jul 10, 2025
- Language
- Japanese
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
In this course, topics that hark back to the distant past but are still relevant to modern times will be analyzed using the methods of comparative economic analysis. A range of topics that have broad applicability, including various aspects of the development of civilizations, the reasons for global inequality, the Malthusian trap and the Industrial Revolution, the necessity of nationalism, and the clash of cultures, will be covered. In addition, the Edo Period, which is the course instructor’s specialization, will be used as an example in describing historical system analysis methods and showing how primary historical sources can be used to construct data, which can then be analyzed to develop concrete images of historical periods.
In this way, students will gain an understanding, from a historical perspective, of how the variety of social systems have encouraged and constrained human activity over time and will gain experience in the practical application of a variety of economic viewpoints and analysis methods to real historical examples.
Course description and aims
The main learning outcome from this course is for students to deepen their understanding of both world history and Japanese history and to become able to analyze historical phenomena from the perspective of economic history. As a result, students will learn key considerations for the design and improvement of institutions and will gain the ability to understand society in broad terms of time and space rather than being limited to what is in front of their own eyes.
Keywords
History, Comparative Institution Analysis
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
When the lecture is conducted as an online lecture, considering the student's environment (communication capacity, time zone), the lecture will be viewed on demand by sharing files on Google drive instead of zoom synchronization.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Guidance | Understanding the world through graphs. |
| Class 2 | Black Swan | The qualities of humans that make them unable to recognize abnormal events as abnormal. |
| Class 3 | Sapiens History | At the beginning, humanity seems to have made a terrible catastrophe. |
| Class 4 | The birth of civilizations | The treasure map created by delusions and Continental distribution determined the development of humanity. |
| Class 5 | The fall of civilizations | Easter Island and Greenland as examples of civilizations that have crumbled as a result of environmental destruction. |
| Class 6 | Maps that let the world go around | The treasure map created by delusions and misunderstandings has actually become a driving force for humanity. |
| Class 7 | Presentation competition on strange world maps | Who best described the adventures of the voyagers? |
| Class 8 | Malthusian Trap | Why did the Great Divergence occur? |
| Class 9 | Columbian Exchange | When the two worlds met, one was happy but the other was terribly unhappy. |
| Class 10 | Can history be an experiment? | Slave trade, colonies and the French Revolution. You can statistically examine the effects of historical events. |
| Class 11 | New insights in game theory | How did remote trade work? Elucidating incentives for the trust of European merchants |
| Class 12 | Edo oval games | A shogunate, samurai, and merchant game. |
| Class 13 | Edo town maps | Become a town magistrate and make it a better town. |
| Class 14 | Presentation competition on Edo town maps | Let's vote to decide which town magistrate is excellent. |
Study advice (preparation and review)
To enhance effective learning, students should thoroughly examine the content of the lecture after the fact and perform each task for about 100 minutes or more.
Textbook(s)
None
Reference books, course materials, etc.
Book list will be provided as needed.
Evaluation methods and criteria
Each time, a small task related to the lecture content is presented. It is required to submit a slide with audio as a presentation twice.
Related courses
- None required
Prerequisites
None required
Contact information (e-mail and phone) Notice : Please replace from ”[at]” to ”@”(half-width character).
yamamuro.k.aa[at]m.titech.ac.jp
Office hours
As needed.