Teaching plan for the course unit
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General information

 

Course unit name: Topics in International Economics

Course unit code: 570425

Academic year: 2017-2018

Coordinator: Juan Tugores Ques

Department: Department of Economics

Credits: 5

Single program: S

 

 

Prior considerations

 

Teaching in Spanish/English.

Estimated learning time

Total number of hours 125

 

Face-to-face learning activities

45

-  Lecture with practical component

45

Supervised project

40

Independent learning

40

Recommendations

 

Students are recommended to have passed an intermediate-level subject in international economics and to have passed the compulsory subject International Economics in the master’s degree.

Competences to be gained during study

 

— Capacity to understand the profound changes entailed by globalization and the new realities and rules it generates.  — Knowledge of recent analytical improvements and their empirical applications, as well as its virtual understanding of new realities. — Capacity to understand new trade and production cycles, as well as the changes in relation to previous scenarios.  — Capacity to understand new financial trends and their interactions with crisis.  — Capacity to asses the scenarios deriving from the union between globalization and crisis in the future of the economy and global society.

Learning objectives

Referring to knowledge — To analyse the causes, mechanisms and consequences of the internationalization of economic relations and its sociopolitical implications.  — To analyse the new trade and financial realities associated to globalization, and the changes in the regulation of the international organization of production. — To analyse the implications of new monetary and financial realities, particularly those that became apparent with the crisis, and the strategic functioning of the international monetary and financial system.  — To further the understanding of analytical approaches to the study of global international realities, of the empirical results and contrasts and the connections with more traditional approaches.

 

 

Teaching blocks

 

1. New realities and new rules: Internationalization and globalization

2. International trade: Traditional analysis and new reality; Heterogeneity-based approaches; International trade in services

3. Multinationalization of production; Trade, investment and multinational organization of production; Trade in tasks and global value chains

4. Debates on competitiveness

5. Distributive consequences of globalization

6. World trade system; Protectionism and regionalism in world economy

7. Macroeconomics and international finances; Transmission mechanisms; Role of exchange rates

8. International financial system; Proposals to reform the international monetary and financial system

9. External instability in global economy; Explications and implications

10. International financial crisis; Causes, mechanisms and post-crisis scenarios

11. Monetary integration; The euro experience: Lessons and implications

12. Globalization, growth and development; New approaches; Diagnosis and growth strategies

 

 

Teaching methods and general organization

 

In each sessions, the lecturer presents the basic elements of each topic, the most relevant analytical and empirical contributions and ongoing controversies. For each of the blocks and topics, announced in advance at the Virtual Campus together with the corresponding references, students are expected to participate actively.

 

 

Official assessment of learning outcomes

 

— Essay on one of the topics on trade, previously suggested by the student and approved by the lecturer (40% of the final grade).  — Essay on one of the topics on finances, previously suggested by the student and approved by the lecturer (40% of the final grade).  — Participation in the sessions which reflects on the assignments and degree of maturity of the topics chosen (20% of the final grade).   Examination-based assessment Single assessment consists of two essays, one on the trade section and another on financial topics. Students must submit their topics of interest to the lecturer for approval.

Reading and study resources

Electronic text

Se trabajará sobre artículos académicos y estudios e informes de referencia, que se podrán encontrar especificados y actualizados en unas guías de cada sesión que se publicarán en el Campus Virtual.

Students work with academic articles and studies and reference reports, which be found in the specific updated guidelines for each session, as published in the Virtual Campus.