Policy in a Global Economy 2: International Trade and Trade Policy

Catalog description

The global economic and financial landscape is far from tranquil and stable. National governments must frequently respond to macroeconomic and financial shocks generated elsewhere in the world. How can governments achieve and maintain growth and stability in a world where financial chaos seems ready to emerge at any moment from the most unlikely circumstances? How can nations learn the lessons of our turbulent financial and macroeconomic history, so that they are not doomed to repeat it? This course will address these essential questions. This course will teach students the basic conceptual frameworks and models of international macroecoomics. The class will focus on the rise of international capital and financial flows in the post-war era, international macroeconomic policy trade-offs with fixed and floating exchange rates, and the economics of inflation. We will use both economic models and detailed historical case studies to investigate currency and financial crises in developed and developing countries, and we will study the costs and benefits of Europe's single currency. The instructor, Professor Lee Branstetter, is the James Walton Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. He has served on the staff of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers and as a consultant to the World Bank, the IMF, and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry.