Spring 2016 - 60475 - PA393H - International Economics

This class will examine theories of international trade, the use of trade, technology, and industrial policies by nation-states in the modern global economy, and the impact of these policies on real world industries and economies. Students will learn how selected economic tools can be deployed to analyze both the historical antecedents and current state of debates over the use of trade, technology, and industrial policies by both industrialized and industrializing economies. Students will be asked to apply these frameworks to current policy controversies, and will gain experience in examining a policy issue analytically, defining the issues, formulating a policy recommendation, and defending that analysis and recommendation in both oral and written settings.

Expositions of basic analytical frameworks or tools will be interspersed with detailed case studies used to analyze and model real world policy issues in real life economies.

The overall goal of the class is to impart a useful working knowledge of policy modeling frameworks applicable to international economic policy issues, and the manner in which simple models are deployed in the real world to win (or lose) intellectual, policy, and legal debates. Every student will leave this class equipped with a basic toolkit of ideas and methods that can be used to analyze real policy issues.

Every student will be asked to participate in two formal group presentations to the class. These exercises will be oral presentations of student analyses and solutions to a detailed policy modeling problem based on the particulars of a real world global industry. In addition, each student will asked to do problem sets, and to take midterm and final exams. The oral presentations will each count for 15% of the final grade, the problem sets for 20%, the midterm for 20%, and the final for 30%.