Dept. of Finance, Economics and Quantitative Methods

EC 407: INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS

Spring 2007

Dr. Don Ross

e-mail: don.ross@uct.ac.za

website: http://www.uab.edu/philosophy/ross.html

Telephone: 396-9071

This is an introductory course in international economics that covers two main parts of that subject: (1) international trade theory and policy argument, and (2) the principles of foreign exchange and currency markets. In the globalized world, these are among the economic topics that almost all businesspeople must understand. Abstract themes are illustrated with topical examples from recent world economic affairs.

At the beginning of the course, each student will be assigned a country as their 'domain of expertise'. Every second week the student will be responsible for doing simple Web research to find out how the previous week's theory / policy topic applies to the recent economic history of their assigned country, and will present a 5-minute report to the class. (Half of students will present in even weeks, the other half in odd weeks.) These will be accompanied by a short written report for hand-in. Thus by the conclusion of the course, each student will have assembled a dossier of reports that gives an overall profile of their country in the international economy. The student will be awarded on overall grade on this portfolio.

Texts

The required text for the course is Thomas A. Pugel, International Economics, 13^th edition (McGraw Hill). You can find the online study guide for this text at http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/007352302x/student_view0/index.html

Assignments and grade components

Country portfolio: 30%

Mid-term test (short answers and problems): 30%

Final examination (short answers and problems): 40%

Week-by-week syllabus

Jan. 10: Chs. 2 & 3

Jan. 17: Chs. 3 & 4

Jan. 24: Chs. 5 & 6

Jan. 31: Chs. 6 & 7

Feb. 7: Chs. 8 & 9

Feb. 14: Chs. 9 & 10

Feb. 21: MID-TERM TEST

Feb. 28: Chs. 11 & 12

March 7: Chs. 12 & 13

March 14: SPRING BREAK

March 21: 14 & 15

March 28: Chs. 15 & 16

April 4: Chs. 17 & 18

April 11: Chs. 18 & 19

April 18: Chs. 20 & 21

April 26: Ch. 21 & review