6 ECTS credits
166 h study time

Offer 2 with catalog number 4009750EER for all students in the 2nd semester at a (E) Master - advanced level.

Semester
2nd semester
Enrollment based on exam contract
Possible
Grading method
Grading (scale from 0 to 20)
Can retake in second session
Yes
Enrollment Requirements
Studenten die dit opleidingsonderdeel opnemen, moeten minstens geslaagd zijn voor ‘Inleiding tot de micro-economie’. Students who want to enroll for this course, must have passed for ‘Introduction to Microeconomics'.
Taught in
English
Faculty
Faculty of Social Sciences & SolvayBusinessSchool
Department
Applied economics
Educational team
Ellen Van Droogenbroeck (course titular)
Activities and contact hours

39 contact hours Lecture
127 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study
Course Content

This course provides an accessible and business-oriented introduction to the key topics in international trade.
'International Trade' focuses on international transactions that involve a physical movement of goods, trade in services, and flows of factors of production (migration, foreign direct investment).
Three themes are explored:

  1. the gains from trade (including the impact of trade on income distribution)
  2. the pattern of trade (who sells what to whom?)
  3. protection (if trade is beneficial, why do countries protect domestic production?)

Emphasis on the role of the international organizations (European Union, World Trade Organization) throughout.


Part 1 - International Trade Theory
World Trade: An Overview
Labor Productivity and Comparative Advantage: The Ricardian Model
Specific Factors and Income Distribution
Resources and Trade: The Heckscher-Ohlin Model
The Standard Trade Model
External Economics of Scale and the International Location of Production?
Firms in the Global Economy: Export Decisions, Outsourcing, and Multinational Enterprises

Part 2 - International Trade Policy
The Instruments of Trade Policy
The Political Economy of Trade Policy
(if time permits) Trade Policy in Developing Countries
(if time permits) Controversies in Trade Policy

Course material
Handbook (Required) : International Economics, Theory and Policy, Krugman, P. R., Obstfeld, M., and Melitz, M., 11de, Pearson, 9781292214870, 2018
Additional info

Written work has to be in APA style.
For data analysis you can use any econometric software: I recommend the open-source (and free) statistical package R, but other (open-source) options also exist.
Some further material may be distributed during the course (check out the news section from the course home page, and verify what happened during classes you missed).
I expect that you read the economic news by reading a financial newspaper like the Financial Times or The Economist (a weekly).  Both are available in the VUB library.

Teaching Methods

  • Lecture: collective contact-dependent moments during which the lecturer engages with learning materials
  • Seminar, Exercises or Practicals (Practical): collective or individual contact-dependent moments during which the students are guided to actively engage with learning materials
  • Independent or External Form of Study (Self): independent study

This description of the teaching methods is indicative, in order to assess the expected study load.

Lecture: 39 hours

Self: 127 hours

  • keeping up with the course material during the semester, amounting to 1 hour per hour lecture: 39 hours
  • solving exercises independently: 28 hours
  • written assignments: 20 hours 
  • preparation exam: 40 hours (5 days of 8 hours)
Learning Outcomes

Algemene competenties

The student develops (parts of) the competences described in Hansen, W. (2001). Expected proficiencies for undergraduate economics majors. Journal of Economic Education, 32(3): 231–242.
 
The student can:
  • track down economic data and data sources (on-line and in print)
  • find information about the generation, construction, and meaning of economic data
  • explain key economic concepts and describe how these concepts can be used
  • summarize in a two-minute monologue or in a 500-word written statement what is known about the current condition of an economy and its outlook
  • summarize the principal ideas of an eminent economist
  • elaborate a recent controversy in the economics literature
  • state the dimensions of a current economic policy issue
  • explain and evaluate what economic concepts and principles are used in economic analyses published in daily newspapers and weekly news magazines (or nontechnical analyses written by economists for general purpose publications)
  • describe how these concepts aid in understanding these analyses
  • interpret and manipulate economic data: explain how to understand and interpret numerical data found in published tables such as those in the United Nations COMTRADE database
  • construct tables from already available data to illustrate an economic issue
  • describe the relationship among three different variables (e.g., prices, wages, and trade)
  • prepare an organized, clearly written five-page analysis of a current economic problem
  • conduct a group research project that prepares a finished research paper.

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Written Exam determines 100% of the final mark.

Within the Written Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

  • Written Exam with a relative weight of 85 which comprises 85% of the final mark.
  • Research Paper with a relative weight of 15 which comprises 15% of the final mark.

Additional info regarding evaluation

Written exam and one written assignment (a short research paper, in group)
The written assigment is posted on the learning platform.
In the second exam session (August/September) students can only retake the written examination; they keep the grade for the written assignment earned during the weeks of class.

Allowed unsatisfactory mark
The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context

This offer is part of the following study plans:
Master of Business Engineering: Standaard traject (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Business Economics: Standaard traject (only offered in Dutch)
Master of International Business: Standaard traject
Master of Teaching in Economics: standaard traject (90 ECTS, Etterbeek) (only offered in Dutch)