International economics and business strategy

This course offers an introduction to contemporary work in the field of international trade theory and related economic policy issues.

We introduce the main concepts and theories, from comparative advantage to approaches with heterogeneous firms. We are also interested in issues of trade policy and factor mobility. Among the questions to be answered by this course are: • Why do countries trade among themselves?

• Why only a fraction of companies export?
• What are the determinants of the nature of trade?
• What are the consequences of the international exchange for the economy taken as a whole? • How does international trade affect the distribution of income?
• What are the consequences of international competition for businesses?
• What are the consequences of setting up customs duties and quotas?

1) Introduction
2) The basis of exchange, Exchange Triangle, reciprocal demand curves, Exchange Gain 3) Ricardian Model, technology differences, comparative advantage
4) HOS Model, distributive consequences of the exchange, verification Empirical
5) International trade in imperfect competition
6) Multinational firms
7) Free Trade Organization and WTO
8) Trade policy in perfect competition
9) Ddetermination of exchange rate and balance of payments mechanisms
10) Open Economy Policy