INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS
- Overview
- Assessment methods
- Learning objectives
- Contents
- Bibliography
- Delivery method
- Teaching methods
- Contacts/Info
No formal prerequisites are required. At least some basic knowledge of macroeconomics is strongly suggested.
The exam is exclusively written and lasts two hours. Students should be able to choose four questions out of five and answer. Expected length of each written answer is nearly one page.
Attending students which submit a final report on the workshop (part 5) have to answer to three questions out of four in one hour and a half. The final evaluation is a weighted average of the individual written exam (80%) and the group work (20%).
The course aims at providing students with strong knowledge about the way the economic theory treats crucial questions related to financial and real globalisation. The course builds explicitly on the consideration that mainstream economics has failed in explaining the causes and consequence of the financial crisis and the recent great recession. Most of the content, therefore, will be dedicated to explain the point of view of the critical heterodox approaches to macroeconomics (mainly inspired by post-keynesian scholars) which are usually neglected in traditional courses.
The course deepens both real and financial aspects of the international economy. Concerning the real aspects, the analysis will focus on the relationship between international trade and macroeconomic equilibria. The financial analysis deals with the way financial capital, interest rates, foreign exchange rates and current account are determined and interact to each other and assesses the space for policy action. These theoretical instruments are applied and challenged by focusing on the Eurozone as a recent example of economic dilemma which can be hardly understood in the light of the conventional wisdom.
The program is divided into a common program (parts 1 to 3) and a differentiated program (parts 4 and 5). All students must prepare parts 1 to 3 for the exam. Students not attending the lessons must prepare part 4 and exclude part 5. Attending students exclude part 4 and actively participate to the workshops to learn how to collect and analyse data on macroeconomic variables (part 5). Participants to the workshop will submit a final group work. Some of the issues treated in part 4 of the program will still be presented and discussed during the lessons, even though attending students (provided that they are truly present during the lessons) do not have to prepare them for the final exam.
COMMON PROGRAM
1. The balance of payments accounting and derived identities (8 hours)
1.1. Definitions, accounting principles, current account, capital account. (G:5)
1.2. Fundamental identities derived from BoP and national accounts (G:6)
1.3. The fundamental identity in a three-dimensional framework (L:7.1)
2. Economic policy and international finance (10 hours)
2.1. The Mundell-Fleming model (MF)
2.2. A Post-Keynesian reinterpretation: The compensation thesis. (L:7.2)
2.3. Interest parity. RIP, PPP, UIP, CIP (G:15.1 excluding 15.1.1, 4; L: 7.3.1)
2.4. The cambist view (L: 7.3.2)
2.5. Exchange rates regimes and international financial architecture (L:7.4)
3. Modern Money Theory (MMT) and Eurozone (6 hours)
3.1. The Modern Monetary Theory view on the Eurozone (M)
3.2. The Tax Credit Certificates proposal (TCC)
DIFFERENCIATED PROGRAM
4. For student that do not participate to the workshop:
Eurozone, open economy and economic growth (6 hours)
4.1. The crisis of the Eurozone (EU)
4.2. Foreign trade multiplier and supermultiplier (L: 7.6.1)
4.3. Trade performance ratio and fiscal stance (L: 7.6.2)
5. For students that participate to the workshop: Empirical description of the Eurozone imbalances (10 hours)
5.1. Collecting data on the computer room
5.2. Trade balance, current account and net foreign position
5.3. Analysis of interdependence across national economies.
5.4. Investigation on the roots of European countries’ economic troubles.
1. [G] G. Gandolfo, 2001, International Finance and Open-Economy Macroeconomics, Springer, 2001.
2. [L] Lavoie, M. (2014). ‘Open-economy macroeconomics’, chapter 7 in Lavoie, M., Post- Keynesian Economics: New Foundations. Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar.
3. [MF] Any summary of the Mundell-Fleming model and main results is fine. Suggestion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mundell–Fleming_model
4. [EU] Lapavitsas C. et al., 2010, Eurozone crisis: Beggar Thyself and Thy Neighbour, Research on Money and Finance (RMF) occasional report, March.
http://www.researchonmoneyandfinance.org/index.php/publication/eurozone-...
5. [M] Mitchell W., 2016. Eurozone dystopia: Groupthink and Denial on a Grand Scale, Edwar Elgar, chapters 17-18, pp.287-329.
6. [TCC] Bossone C. and M. Cattaneo, 2016 ‘Helicopter tax credits’ to accelerate economic recovery in Italy (and other Eurozone countries), 4 January http://voxeu.org/article/fiscal-stimulus-helicopter-tax-credits
Mode of Delivery:
Frontal lessons
A scholarship will be issued to students writing a thesis on the Modern Money Theory (MMT): point 3 of the program.