Professor Leslie Hannah

For MSc Management and Strategy and MSc International Management, incoming IMEX students and MPA Public and Economic Policy/MPA Public Policy and Management/MPA International Development/MPA European Public and Economic Policy/MPA Public and Social Policy. Priority will be given in the following order: IMEX students (home and visiting); other students from the MES Group and International Relations; all other LSE students. Students are required to obtain permission from the teaching department to take this course, unless it is a compulsory course for their programme.

The course looks at the process of globalisation at three levels: industries, firms and nations. The topics include: the changing structure of industries, using sectors such as automobiles and electronics to illustrate the new international division of labour; the response of companies, both those based in the advanced industrial countries and those based in emerging markets, to increasing international competition; differences between countries in their institutions and policies, focusing in particular on financial systems and corporate governance and on government industry and technology policies.

10 lectures and 10 seminars in the MT. There is also a Department of Management seminar programme which is optional and not part of MN425 but is relevant to the course.

Useful books for background reading are P Dicken, Global Shift, 6th edn, Sage Publications 2011; Giorgio Barba Navaretti & Anthony J Venables, Multinational Firms in the World Economy, Princeton, 2004; John Roberts, The Modern Firm, 2004 and Martin Wolf, Why Globalisation Works, Yale 2004. Detailed reading lists will be provided for each of the ten lectures. A course pack of key readings will be made available.

The assessment is based on two essays of 2,000 words each. The first essay will be set in week 4, for delivery in week 8, and will be based on the topics covered in the first five lectures. The second essay will be set in week 7, for delivery at the start of the Lent term, and will be based on the topics covered in the second five lectures. In addition, each student will provide a short seminar presentation (not assessed) on one the topics discussed in the lectures.