(Click here for complete outlines from previous year.)

  • Dec 9: Last Class
  • Dec 4: Trade and Labor Standards
  • Dec 2: Trade and Environment
    1. The Issue
      1. Dealing with Externalities
      2. Role of WTO
    2. Economic Approach to Negative Externalities
      1. Regulation versus Tax
      2. Examples
    3. International Issues
      1. Cross-Border Externalities
      2. Effects on Competitiveness
      3. Differences in Costs and Benefits
      4. WTO

  • Nov 25: Globalization
    1. Symptoms of Globalization
      1. Global Markets for Goods
      2. Global Markets for Capital
      3. Global Markets for Factors
      4. Fragmentation
      5. Non-traded Goods and Factors
    2. What Has Happened to Wages?
    3. Explanations of the Rising Skill Premium
      1. Labor Supply?
      2. Globalization
        1. Trade Liberalization
        2. Growth in Poor Countries
      3. Technology

  • Nov 20: International Policies for Economic Development: Monetary
    1. The Issues
    2. Choice of Exchange Rate Regimes
    3. Pros and Cons of Free Capital Movements
    4. Debt Problems of the 1980s
    5. The Asian Crisis of 1997

  • Nov 18: International Policies for Economic Development: Trade
    1. The Issues
    2. The Washington Consensus
    3. Special Problems of Developing Countries
    4. Pros and Cons of Free Trade for LDCs
      1. Infant Industry Argument
      2. Other Objections to Free Trade
      3. Exports and Growth
      4. Track Record of Import Substitution
    5. Policy Recommendations

  • Nov 13: Exam
  • Nov 11: Economic Integration: Monetary (The Euro)
    • No Outline. (Guest speaker Jay Levin)

  • Nov 6: Preferential Trading Arrangements
    1. What Are PTAs?
    2. Examples
      1. European Union (EU)
      2. North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
    3. Effects of PTAs
      1. Not the Same as Free Trade
        1. Trade Creation
        2. Trade Diversion
      2. Illustration
    4. NAFTA
      1. History
      2. Analysis Beforehand
      3. Evaluation Afterward

  • Nov 4: Fixed versus Floating Exchange Rates
    1. Both Systems Are Used
    2. What the "Experts" Recommend
    3. Pros and Cons of Floating
      1. Disruption When Rates Move
      2. Automatic Adjustment
    4. Pros and Cons of Pegging
      1. Stability
      2. Instability
    5. Alternatives
      1. Crawling Peg - See Brazil
      2. Monetary Unification

  • Oct 30: International Macroeconomics
    1. Recall Macro from Econ 102
      1. Aggregate Supply and Demand
      2. Policies
    2. Effects ON the Exchange Market
      1. Expansion
      2. Interest Rate
    3. Effects OF the Exchange Market
      1. Depreciation via Trade
      2. Depreciation via Net Wealth
    4. Effects THROUGH the Exchange Market

  • Oct 28: Pegging the Exchange Rate
    1. How It's Done
      1. Market Intervention
      2. Bands of Flucuation
      3. Hybrids of Pegged and Floating
    2. Who Pegs?
    3. Mechanics of Intervention
      1. Reserves
      2. Money Supply
      3. Sterilization
    4. Effects of Pegging

  • Oct 23: Visit by John W. Sweetland
  • Oct 21: Exchange Rates
    1. In What Forms Are Exchange Rates Reported?
      1. Bilateral Nominal Rates
      2. Multilateral (Trade-Weighted) Rates
      3. Real Rates
      4. Forward Rates
    2. What Determines Exchange Rates?
      1. Markets
      2. Governments/Central Banks
    3. Theories of Exchange Rates
      1. Purchasing Power Parity
      2. Asset Theory
      3. Supply and Demand Model

  • Oct 16: The Balance of Trade and International Transactions
    1. What is the Balance of Trade?
    2. What Does the Balance of Trade Not Mean?
    3. International Transactions
      1. Current Account
      2. Financial Account
    4. What Does the Balance of Trade Really Mean?
      1. From Balance of Payments Accounting
      2. From National Income Accounting

  • Oct 14: Fall Break
  • Oct 9: Exam
  • Oct 7: International Movements of Capital
    1. Terminology
      1. FDI, DFI, MNEs, MNCs
      2. Real Versus Financial Capital
    2. Purposes Served by FDI
      1. Local Market versus Export
      2. Reasons for FDI
    3. Who Gains and Who Loses?
      1. Effects that are Similar to Trade
      2. Effects that are Similar to Migration
      3. Other Effects

  • Oct 2: Migration
    1. Why People Migrate
    2. Why Wages Differ across Countries
    3. Effects of Migration
      1. On Payments to Factors
        1. Labor
        2. Other
      2. Other Effects
    4. Policies to Affect Migration
    5. The U.S. Experience

  • Sep 30: World Trade Arrangements and the WTO
    1. International Organizations Related to Trade
    2. World Trade Organization
      1. History, as GATT
      2. GATT Rounds
      3. WTO Today
      4. Functions
    3. Current Issues
      1. China Entry
      2. Seattle Protests and Beyond
      3. Doha Round

  • Sep 25: U.S. Trade Policies and Institutions
    1. Parts of U.S. Government that Handle Trade
      1. We Do NOT Have a Trade Ministry
      2. What We DO Have
    2. Main Features of U.S. Trade Policies
      1. Tariffs, Quotas, VERs
      2. Escape Clause
      3. Unfair Trade Laws
      4. Trade Adjustment Assistance
      5. Fast Track
    3. Dumping and Anti-Dumping
    4. Why the U.S. Protects
    5. Trends in U.S. Trade Policy
  • Sep 23: Reasons for Protection
    1. Reasons that Do NOT Make Economic Sense
      1. Pauper Labor
      2. Fairness
      3. Patriotism
      4. Retaliation
    2. Reasons that DO Make Economic Sense, with Counter-Arguments
      1. Revenue
      2. Optimal Tariff
      3. Infant Industry
      4. National Security
      5. Protect Favored Industry
      6. Retaliation...
  • Sep 18: Nontariff Barriers
    1. What Are NTBs?
    2. Main Types
      1. Quotas
      2. Voluntary Export Restraints (VERs)
      3. Variable Levies
      4. Government Procurement Regulations
      5. Customs Procedures
      6. Standards
      7. Local Content Requirements
      8. Unfair Trade Laws
    3. Effects of Quotas
      1. Equivalent to a Tariff
      2. Who Gets the Rents?

  • Sep 16: Tariffs
    1. What Are They?
    2. Who Uses Them?
    3. Effects of Tariffs
      1. Small Country Case
        1. Effects on quantities and prices
        2. Effects on economic welfare
      2. Large Country Case
        1. Effect on world price
        2. Effect on welfare
      3. Size of these Effects

  • Sep 11: Modern Theories and Additional Effects of Trade
    1. Sources of Comparative Advantage
    2. The Heckscher-Ohlin Model
      1. Main Idea
      2. Intuition
      3. Does the Theory Work?
    3. Effects of Trade
      1. Changes in Production
      2. Factor Price Equalization
    4. The New Trade Theory
      1. Assumptions
      2. Implications

  • Sep 9: Comparative Advantage and the Gains from Trade
    1. Why Countries Trade
      1. Price Differences
      2. Supply and Demand
      3. Determinants of Prices
    2. Ricardian Model of Trade
      1. Examples
        1. With Absolute Advantage
        2. With Comparative Advantage
      2. Wages and Prices in the Ricardian Model
      3. Lessons of the Ricardian Model
    3. Generality of Gains from Trade

  • Sep 4: Institutions of the International Economy
    1. The Three Main Institutions
      1. IMF = International Monetary Fund
      2. World Bank
      3. WTO = World Trade Organization
    2. Why They Were Created, and When
    3. How They Have Changed
    4. Their Reputations Today
    5. Other Institutions
      1. United Nations
      2. OECD=Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
      3. Preferential Trading Arrangements
    6. What's Happening Now?

  • Sep 2: International Economics Introduction and Overview
    1. Course Organization
    2. Overview of the World Economy
      1. Elements of the World Economy
      2. Ways that Countries Interact
        1. Trade
        2. Capital Flows
        3. Migration
      3. Policies that Affect Others