Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

Recitations: 1 session / week, 1 hour / session

Course Description

In this course we will cover the basic tools to understand what determines the flow of goods across countries, i.e. international trade, and what determines the flow of savings and investments from one country to another, i.e. international finance. We will also cover applications to a number of topics of current interest, including the debate on globalization, free trade agreements, the U.S. current account deficit, the medium run prospects for exchange rates, European integration, and the debate on global financial architecture following the financial crises in East Asia and Argentina.

Prerequisites

The prerequisites for this course are 14.01 Principles of Microeconomics and 14.02 Principles of Macroeconomics.

Textbook

The textbook is:

Buy at Amazon [KO] Krugman, Paul, and Maurice Obstfeld. International Economics: Theory and Policy. Boston, MA: Addison Wesley, 2008. ISBN: 9781408208076.

Some of the other references are listed in the readings section; some are for your own reading.

Recitations

There will be weekly recitation sections where you may ask questions about the problem sets and review material from lecture. Be prepared to participate in class when called on by the instructor.

Grading

ACTIVITIES PERCENTAGES
Problem sets and class participation 34%
Midterm exam (90 minutes) 33%
Final exam (90 minutes) 33%

 

Cooperation on problem sets is encouraged. A group of up to 3 students may submit a joint answer to any problem set (i.e. one copy, the names of all persons in the group must appear at the top of each problem set, at the time when it is handed in). An in-class mid-term will be held after lecture 13. A 90-minute final exam will be held during exam week. They will cover the lectures, the readings, the problem sets, and other material handed out or discussed in class up to that time.

Calendar

SES # TOPICS KEY DATES
I. International trade
L1-L3 International trade and gains from trade; The Ricardian model  
L4-L6 The specific factors model and the standard trade model Problem set 1 due in Ses #L4
L7 Globalization and inequality  
L8 The transfer problem Problem set 2 due
L9-L10 Trade policy - Tariffs  
L11-L12 A case study of trade policy Problem set 3 due in Ses #L12
L13 Multinationals - Guest lecture by Pol Antras  
  Midterm exam  
II. Open economy macroeconomics
A. Inter-temporal trade and financial markets
L14-L15 Inter-temporal trade and the current account  
L16 Current account adjustment and real exchange rates (with application to the U.S. current account deficit)  
L17-L18 The Foreign exchange market and currency speculation  
B. Short-run adjustment and crises
L19-L20 Money and exchange rates, PPP, and the real exchange rate Problem set 4 due in Ses #L19
L21-L22 The Mundell-Fleming model and exchange rate regimes Problem set 5 due in Ses #L22
L23-L25 Financial crises and currency crises Problem set 6 due in Ses #L25
L26 Course summary  
  Final exam