International Economics

Teacher(s)

Fagnart Jean-François;

Language

English

Prerequisites

The prerequisite(s) for this Teaching Unit (Unité d’enseignement – UE) for the programmes/courses that offer this Teaching Unit are specified at the end of this sheet.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

An exhaustive list of expected learning outcomes will be provided for each chapter of the course.

Content

The course provides an introduction to International Economics. This field of Economics analyses how nations interact through trade of goods and services, flows of money, and investment and what are the consequences of these interactions. This field is as old as the discipline of Economics itself (see e.g. David Hume (1758), Of the Balance of Trade) but it is increasingly important as over the last decades, international trade and financial integration have been growing between nations.

The course consists of the two main parts:

1. The first part covers international trade theory and policy. It analyses questions like 1) what explains the patterns and volume of trade between countries, 2) why and how countries (potentially) gain from trade and why gains from trade are usually not shared equally between and within countries, 3) the labour market implications of international trade, 4) the instruments of trade policy.
2. The second part is about open-economy macroeconomics. It studies how international trade and capital mobility impact macroeconomic outcomes and the effectiveness of national macroeconomic policies. Covered topics are a.o. 1) the determination of the current account, 2) the limitations on foreign borrowing and lending, 3) the determination of the nominal and real exchange rates, 4) the consequences of financial globalization.

Teaching methods

During the lectures, a selection of the chapters of the reference book is presented and illustrated on the basis of various real life examples and complementary readings.
Students must also make a few personal readings (either of other chapters of the book or of relevant articles).

Evaluation methods

Written (closed book) final exam of three hours.
The exam questions are based on a list of learning outcomes provided for the different chapters of the course (and for the personal readings).
The final mark is the arithmetic sum of the marks obtained for the various questions in the examination

Online resources

On the moodle platform for this course, the students can find

1. all the slides used during the lectures,
2. a list of the expected learning outcomes for the different chapters of the course,
3. examples of past exams.

Bibliography

Krugman Paul, Maurice Obstfeld and Marc Melitz (2022), International Economics: Theory and Policy, Global Edition, Pearson, 12th edition (the 11th and 10th editions suit as well).

Teaching materials

• Slides used for the different chapters of the course
• Krugman Paul, Maurice Obstfeld and Marc Melitz (2022), International Economics: Theory and Policy, Global Edition, Pearson, 12th edition

Faculty or entity

ESPB