International Economics: Economic Integration

The course focuses on the theory of international economics. The first part covers international trade. The most important topics covered are: patterns of trade and specialization (from the classical models --- Ricardo and Heckscher-Ohlin --- to the more recent models of monopolistic competition); gains from trade and effects of international trade on income distribution. Along the way, several important real world problems will be discussed, such as the effects of offshoring on wages. In the international macroeconomics part, the most important topics are: current account; exchange rates; relationship between interest rates and inflation and monetary and fiscal policy under different regimes. These tools will be useful to understand current policy issues as European Union or the financial crisis.