International Economy and Trade
Code: 101086 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year | Semester |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2500259 Political Science and Public Management | OT | 3 | 2 |
| 2500259 Political Science and Public Management | OT | 4 | 2 |
| 2503778 International Relations | FB | 2 | 2 |
Contact
- Name:
- Rosella Nicolini
- Email:
- rosella.nicolini@uab.cat
Teaching groups languages
You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject. Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2023.
Prerequisites
This course relies on the basic knowledge a student can get when completing the basic course "Political Economy," that is, an understanding of the principles of economics and a knowledge of the basic features of the changing world economy and international relations.
Objectives and Contextualisation
The first part of the course focuses on the international trade theory and basic monetary policies. The material covers the theory of the international trade from the beginning (Ricardo's theory) to the current state-of-the-art. The course also introduces students to current issues in trade theory, above all the ones associated with the role of trade policies for economic development and their impact at macro level.
The second part deals with the main problems associated with monetary transactions and international financial markets.
Finally, the course also provides information about international institutions involved in the decision making referring to trade policies.
Competences
- Political Science and Public Management
- Applying the discipline's main theories and different fields to real practical and professional problems.
- Arguing from different theoretical perspectives.
- Demonstrating good writing skills in different contexts.
- Distinguishing the discipline's main theories and different fields: conceptual developments, theoretical frameworks and theoretical approaches underlying the discipline's knowledge and different areas and sub-areas, as well as their value for the professional practice through concrete cases.
- Identifying sources of data and conducting bibliographic and documentary searches.
- Interpreting and applying English texts in an academic way.
- Managing the available time in order to accomplish the established objectives and fulfil the intended task.
- Realising effective oral presentations that are suited to the audience.
- Showing a good capacity for transmitting information, distinguishing key messages for their different recipients.
- Synthesizing and critically analysing information.
- Working autonomously.
- Working in teams and networking, particularly in interdisciplinary conditions.
- International Relations
- Analyse international society and its structure and understand its importance for real-life problems and professional practice.
- Analyse the structure and operation of international institutions and organisations (political, economic, military and security, environmental, development and emergency aid) both in the universal and regional spheres, with particular emphasis on the European Union, from either real or simulated cases.
- Apply knowledge of the structure and operation of international institutions to problems and/or practical cases, either real or simulated.
- Identify data sources and carry out rigorous bibliographical and documentary searches.
- Identify the main theories of international relations and their different fields (international theory, conflicts and security, international politics, etc.) to apply them in professional practice.
- Produce and prepare the presentation of intervention reports and/or proposals.
- Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
- Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
- Use metatheoretical data to argue and establish plausible relation of causality and establish ways of validating or rejecting them.
Learning Outcomes
- Analyse and explain the functioning of the economy and international trade in the contemporary system.
- Analyse the operation of the main universal and regional institutions that intervene in international finance and trade.
- Analysing and explaining the economic dimensions behind public policies.
- Analysing the impact of structuring factors of the economy and international trade (institutions, policies, and actors).
- Arguing about the impact of international organizations on trade and international economy.
- Arguing from different theoretical perspectives.
- Assessing the role of the public sector as an economic agent.
- Critically arguing the operations of the institutions and economic actors.
- Critically evaluate the dynamics created in the interaction between the state and the market.
- Demonstrating good writing skills in different contexts.
- Describe the dynamics of economic systems, their limits and potential and their political consequences.
- Describing the Spanish foreign sector: the dynamics of import/export, foreign investments in Spain and Spanish investments abroad.
- Diagnosing specific situations and economic problems.
- Efficiently describing forms of public intervention concerning the economic system.
- Explain the theoretical models of economics taking into account different historical studies.
- Explaining the consequences of a fiscal reform and changes on the government's tax issues.
- Explaining the main characteristics of the economic policies of western governments.
- Identify and analyse the roles of different actors, within and outside the state, in the operation of international economics and trade.
- Identify data sources and carry out rigorous bibliographical and documentary searches.
- Identify the problems faced by economic agents when making decisions in conditions of uncertainty, using different historical experiences.
- Identifying sources of data and conducting bibliographic and documentary searches.
- Interpreting and applying English texts in an academic way.
- Make a historical analysis of current economic problems to better assess the evolutionary possibilities of economic systems.
- Managing the available time in order to accomplish the established objectives and fulfil the intended task.
- Produce and prepare the presentation of intervention reports and/or proposals.
- Realising effective oral presentations that are suited to the audience.
- Reflecting on the proposals of current economic policies, in several fields (financial, fiscal, incomes policy, etc.) and several territories (World, Europe, Spain).
- Showing a good capacity for transmitting information, distinguishing key messages for their different recipients.
- Specifying the roles, dimensions and structure of the public sector in the economy.
- Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
- Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
- Synthesizing and critically analysing information.
- Use analytical tools for economics and international trade and apply them to different processes and case studies.
- Use metatheoretical data to argue and establish plausible relation of causality and establish ways of validating or rejecting them.
- Working autonomously.
- Working in teams and networking, particularly in interdisciplinary conditions.
Content
Methodology
Recitation classes
Tutorials and seminars
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Activities
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Autonomous | 88 | 3.52 | 2, 4, 23, 1, 3, 18, 8, 6, 34, 5, 7, 10, 14, 12, 11, 13, 25, 15, 29, 16, 17, 26, 24, 20, 19, 21, 22, 28, 31, 30, 27, 32, 35, 36, 33, 9 |
| Evaluation | 8 | 0.32 | 37, 2, 4, 23, 1, 3, 18, 8, 6, 34, 7, 12, 11, 13, 15, 29, 16, 17, 20, 19, 21, 22, 28, 31, 30, 27, 32, 35, 36, 33, 9 |
| Guided | 15 | 0.6 | 8, 17, 24 |
| Guided | 35 | 1.4 | 4, 3, 8, 6, 5, 7, 10, 14, 12, 13, 29, 16, 17, 26, 24, 21, 22, 28, 27, 32, 35, 36 |
Assessment
- 50% Final exam covering the material of the course that the professor will communicate in class (which will be the official day scheduled for the Faculty),
- 30% Midterm evaluation as the professor will explain in class,
- 20% Other assessment activities (exercises, reports, presentations...)
The final minimum grade to pass the course is 5. The final grade is the weighted average of the scores of all the activities proposed during the course.
If the final overall grade is lower than 3.5, the student must repeat the course next year.
Students with a final grade between 3.5 and less than 5 may take a retake exam. This assessment is organized by the Faculty during the session of exams.The retake exam grants maximum 1.5 points. If a student passes the retake exam, the final grade will be 5.
Students who wish to opt for a single assessment will have to apply for it by addressing at the Academic Management Office of the Faculty of Political Sciences and Sociology within the terms and modalities established by the Faculty Regulation.
The single assessment will be exclusively in presence.
In the case of choosing the single assessment option, the student must submit all the documents referring to all the course evaluation activities to the professor the day of the final exam (as scheduled in the academic calendar of the Faculty). Additionally, in the same day, the student must take the final exam which will cover all the topics discussed in the course and perform a(n) (oral) presentation of a report or research work as part of the evaluation activities (as for the continuous assessment option).
The total duration of the single evaluation will be around four hours.
In the case of the single assessment, the grade of the final course will be the result of the assessment of all the material submitted by the student by applying the same weight criteria established for the evaluation of the learning activities in the continuous assessment option.
Students who apply for the single evaluation assessment will be eligible for the retake exam under the same conditions as those opting for the continuous assessment.
A student that does not perform any learning task is considered "not evaluable" and, hence, a student who opts for the continous assessment option can no longer be "not evaluable".Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Final exam | 50% | 2 | 0.08 | 4, 3, 8, 6, 5, 7, 10, 14, 12, 13, 29, 16, 17, 26, 21, 22, 28, 27, 32, 36 |
| Midterm evalution | 30% | 1 | 0.04 | 37, 2, 4, 23, 1, 3, 18, 8, 6, 34, 5, 7, 10, 14, 12, 11, 13, 25, 15, 29, 16, 17, 26, 24, 20, 19, 21, 22, 28, 31, 30, 27, 32, 35, 36, 33, 9 |
| Other activites (exercises, reports, presentations...) | 20% | 1 | 0.04 | 6, 10, 26, 21, 22, 28, 32, 36 |
Bibliography
Basic reference:
Th. Pugel (2020): “International Economics”, Mc Graw Hill
( e-book edition https://bibcercador.uab.cat/permalink/34CSUC_UAB/1c3utr0/cdi_askewsholts_vlebooks_9781260568547)
Additional references:
Baldwin, R. and Ch. Wyplosz (2021): Economics of European Integration, 6th Editions, Mc Graw Hill.
Gopinah, G. (2020): Reopening from the Great Lockdown: uneven and uncertain recovery (IMF; https://meetings.imf.org/en/IMF/Home/Blogs/Articles/2020/06/24/blog-weo-update-reopening-from-the-great-lockdown-uneven-and-uncertain-recovery)
Nicolini, R (2019): Tools in Applied Economics, UAB DDD (https://ddd.uab.cat/record/203608)
Rebollo Sanz, Y. and de la Rica, S. (2020): From gender gaps in skills to gender gaps in wages: Evidence from the PIAAC (https://ideas.repec.org/p/pab/wpaper/20.09.html)
Rodrik, D. (2011): “The Globalization Paradox. Democracy and the Future of the World Economy”, Norton.
Further readings will be provided during the course.
Software
Basic software for editing documents (example Microsoft Word) or worksheet (example Microsoft Excel).