Document Type

Undergraduate Syllabus

Date

Fall 2021

School

Diplomacy

Course Number

DIPL 4555 AA/AB

Course Description

Who won from a US-China trade war? Will Brexit bring prosperity to the UK? What role does international trade and investment play in a Covid-19 vaccine? These current issues in international economics directly impact international relations. Economists use frameworks to analyze the underlying processes driving social and economic decisions, such as the decision for a person to migrate or for a firm to offshore. Once validated with empirical evidence, we can carefully apply the frameworks to ongoing situations to predict the impact of different policy options.

Throughout the course, we will use mainly current international issues to learn some key economic principles and apply them to the problem at hand. We will also draw from the research and policy communities to gather empirical evidence to help us decide the answer to questions such as those above. Topics covered in the course include the impact of trade patterns on jobs anti wages, global supply chains and their implication for the types of trade agreements and trade policies we see today, why firms offshore (foreign direct investment), immigration and its impact on host and sending countries, whether current trade agreements address labour and environmental standards, and more. In DIPL 4555, we will view these issues through economics lens to identify the mechanisms at work and to use this knowledge to evaluate and recommend policies.

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