Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

Recitations: 1 session / week, 1 hour / session

Course Description

In this course we will cover the basic tools to understand what determines the flow of goods across countries, i.e. international trade, and what determines the flow of savings and investments from one country to another, i.e. international finance. We will also cover applications to a number of topics of current interest, including the debate on globalization, free trade agreements, the U.S. current account deficit, the medium run prospects for exchange rates, European integration, and the debate on global financial architecture following the financial crises in East Asia and Argentina.

Prerequisites

The prerequisites for this course are 14.01 Principles of Microeconomics and 14.02 Principles of Macroeconomics.

Textbook

The textbook is:

[KO] Krugman, Paul, and Maurice Obstfeld. International Economics: Theory and Policy. Boston, MA: Addison Wesley, 2008. ISBN: 9781408208076.

Some of the other references are listed in the readings section; some are for your own reading.

Recitations

There will be weekly recitation sections where you may ask questions about the problem sets and review material from lecture. Be prepared to participate in class when called on by the instructor.

Grading

Cooperation on problem sets is encouraged. A group of up to 3 students may submit a joint answer to any problem set (i.e. one copy, the names of all persons in the group must appear at the top of each problem set, at the time when it is handed in). An in-class mid-term will be held after lecture 13. A 90-minute final exam will be held during exam week. They will cover the lectures, the readings, the problem sets, and other material handed out or discussed in class up to that time.

Calendar