AECO 23A00 - Economics : Trade and International Finance

The course aims to provide students with an introduction to two key dimensions of globalization:

international trade and open-economy macroeconomics. The course will cover both theoretical and

empirical contributions and will often refer to current policy issues. We will consider questions such as:

what are the main drivers of globalization? What are the gains from trade? What are its effects on

inequality? How does the market power of firms affect trade? What is the role of multinational firms

and international production networks? What are the goals and the effects of trade policies? How to

explain exchange rates and international financial flows? How does globalization affect macroeconomic equilibrium? Is the euro an optimal currency area? Why so many international financial crises?

The prerequisite for this course is the core economics course in the first year. Although not very

formalized, this course will use some basic mathematical and graphical tools that are common in any

modern economic course.

One mid-term and one final exam (2 hours each). Each counting for 1/3 of the final grade.

Each formal exam consists of three open questions.

TA sessions (Conférence de Méthodes) : remaining 1/3 of the grade. 50% Country Report, 30%

participation and 20% Take-home