This course aims to provide students with the basic conceptual tools for evaluating and comparing different economies of the world. A generally focus approach will be adopted to encourage student to have a general understanding of how economic systems work and how economic theory interacts with government policy, history, culture, social, political and philosophical factors to explain economic performance and evolution. A wide range of current issues confronting economic transition, structural change will also be emphasized. In this course, students learn the methods of cross-country comparisons through analysing institutional structure under various economic systems with both the most important real-world regional and country cases in history and some cases that arouse interest lately.