Admission requirements
This course is only available for students in the BA International Studies.
Limited places are also open for exchange students. Please note: this course takes place in The Hague.
Description
The Course “International Economics” is designed to provide an overview of the international economic situation as it has evolved in recent decades, with a focus on the principal economic problems which bring policymakers and businesspeople together. The focus will be truly global in nature, insofar as the issues tackled will be of equal import to students who will be working in any area of the globe. The course assumes that, as International Studies majors, students will be most interested in the role of policymaking for government or NGOs, but it will also provide training relevant to a future role as a business executive. Building on the students’ previous work in economics, the course makes fair use of graphs, but takes into account that some students might consider themselves ’quantitatively challenged.’
The first half of the course will focus on presenting an overview of microeconomics to BAIS students, and of looking at ways in which individual firms and markets operate across borders. Thus, we will cover such topics as theory of the firm, firm structure, transaction costs, and international management; these will be complimented with discussions of trade theory, comparative advantage and trade restrictions.
The second half othe course will focus more on global macroeconomic accounting and flows. We will begin with an overview of global economic institutions, and of global accounting procedures. We will then discuss global capital flows, including forex markets; and we will then move into a discussion of recent global economic turmoil, including currency crises, and also the general crisis of 2008. The course will end with a discussion of global inequality, and which policies might best help to allocate global resources in the coming decades.
Taken together, the course aims to provide students with a deeper understanding of the range of economic problems and solutions they can expect to encounter as members of international government and business administrations.
Course objectives
This course builds on the students’ previous experience with macroeconomics and area economics, by first addressing relevant microeconomic theory to compliment their previous experience. The macro, micro, and area economic knowledge that students have acquired will then serve as a background to introduce some of the more specific problems of international economics.
Students will gain a refresher and introduction to new concepts in microeconomics and corporate structure, including theory of the firm, an introduction to management, and some fundamentals of corporate accounting. They will become familiar with the primary spheres in which corporate and governmental interests interact at the national and international levels. They will learn about the main policy tools which are available to governments regarding the regulation of business.
In addition, students will learn to develop a basic familiarity with key institutions in the global economy, and with some of the history of how the current globalized economy got to the stage it is at.
Another goal of this course is to allow students to capitalize on the area studies economics courses which they had in the previous semester, and to note how the problems faced by their area in fact have echoes and parallels now throughout the global economy. Many of the concepts introduced in previous economics courses, such as Balance of Payments issues, will now be explored and explained in more depth, so that students will now be able to understand, on a theoretical and practical level, why these issues matter to many of the world’s most powerful people.
It is understood that many students will find some concepts in our International Economics textbook to be disconcerting, at first. A major goal of this course is to walk students though these concepts each week, in clearly-constructed and nonthreatening lectures, with the goal of helping to empower students with the knowledge that even something as seemingly impenetrable as ‘international economics,’ can become comprehensible to them. It is therefore hoped that students will realize that economics is an indispensable, and largely comprehensible, part of the international regulatory system.
Timetable
The timetable is available on the BA International Studies website
Mode of instruction
One two hour lecture per week; tri-weekly tutorials.
Attending all tutorial sessions is compulsory. If you are unable to attend a session, please inform the tutor of the course in advance, providing a valid reason for your absence. Being absent without notification and valid reason or not being present at half or more of the tutorial sessions will mean your assignments will not be assessed, and result in a 1.0 for the tutorial (30% of the final grade).
Course Load
Total course load for the course is 5 EC x 28 hours is 140 hours, broken down by:
Lectures: 24 hours
Tutorials: 8 hours
Lecture Prep: 36 hours
Tutorial Prep: 12 hours
Paper: (research/writing): 20 hours
Tutorial Presentation prep: 6 hours
Exam Study (17 hrs each): 34 hours
Assessment method
Assessment and Weighing
Tutorial Grade: 30%
(Includes an Oral Presentation, and a Short Esssay of 1,500 words)
Mid-Term: 30%
Closed questions (multiple choice)
Final Exam: 40%
Closed questions (Multiple choice)
To complete the final mark, please take notice of the following:
the final mark for the course is established by determining the weighted average
Resit
If the final grade is insufficient (lower than a 6), there is the possibility of retaking the full 70% of the exam material, replacing both the earlier mid- and endterm grades. No resit for the tutorials is possible.
Blackboard
Blackboard will be used. For tutorial groups: please enroll in blackboard after your enrolment in uSis
Students are requested to register on Blackboard for this course.
Reading list
S. Beugelsdijk, et al., International Economics and Business: Nations and Firms in the Global Economy, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 2014).
Registration
Enrolment through uSis is mandatory.
General information about uSis is available in English and Dutch
Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs
Not applicable