6 ECTS credits
166 u studietijd

Aanbieding 2 met studiegidsnummer 4009750EER voor alle studenten in het 2e semester met een verdiepend master niveau.

Semester
2e semester
Inschrijving onder examencontract
Mogelijk
Beoordelingsvoet
Beoordeling (0 tot 20)
2e zittijd mogelijk
Ja
Inschrijvingsvereisten
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'.
Onderwijstaal
Engels
Faculteit
Faculteit Sociale Wetensch & SolvayBusinessSchool
Verantwoordelijke vakgroep
Toegepaste economie
Onderwijsteam
Ellen Van Droogenbroeck (titularis)
Onderdelen en contacturen
0 contacturen Exam
39 contacturen Lecture
127 contacturen Self study
Inhoud

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

Studiemateriaal
Handboek (Vereist) : International Economics, Theory and Policy, Krugman, P. R., Obstfeld, M., and Melitz, M., 11de, Pearson, 9781292214870, 2018
Bijkomende 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)
Leerresultaten

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.

Beoordelingsinformatie

De beoordeling bestaat uit volgende opdrachtcategorieën:
Examen Schriftelijk bepaalt 100% van het eindcijfer

Binnen de categorie Examen Schriftelijk dient men volgende opdrachten af te werken:

  • Schriftelijk Examen met een wegingsfactor 85 en aldus 85% van het totale eindcijfer.
  • Onderzoekspaper met een wegingsfactor 15 en aldus 15% van het totale eindcijfer.

Aanvullende info mbt evaluatie

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.

Toegestane onvoldoende
Kijk in het aanvullend OER van je faculteit na of een toegestane onvoldoende mogelijk is voor dit opleidingsonderdeel.

Academische context

Deze aanbieding maakt deel uit van de volgende studieplannen:
Master handelsingenieur: Standaard traject
Master in de toegepaste economische wetenschappen: Standaard traject
Master of International Business: Standaard traject (enkel aangeboden in het Engels)
Educatieve master in de economie: standaard traject (90 ECTS, Etterbeek)