International Economics: Trade, Money and Power in the Global Economy

Why can’t countries have it all — deep integration into the global economy, stable conditions for sustained growth, and full control over their own economic development?

International economic policy is shaped by fundamental trade-offs at the heart of globalization. The more deeply economies integrate into global systems of trade, finance, production, and redistribution, the more they confront constraints on domestic policymaking. This course places these tensions at the center of analysis. Building on the international trilemma — often described as the “impossible trinity” in economics — it extends the framework beyond its traditional monetary focus to examine how major cross-border flows (trade, investments, aid and remittances) generate strategic choices and structural constraints.

The course integrates formal economic reasoning with empirical and policy analysis to examine the principal channels of international economic integration. In particular, it shines the light on the economic mechanisms through which global trade flows influence macroeconomic stability, policy autonomy, and long-term development outcomes.

Drawing on core analytical frameworks from open-economy macroeconomics, international trade theory, and development economics, students develop the analytical tools to understand how international monetary, trade, and development finance systems function in practice. Emphasis is placed on the mechanisms underlying international macroeconomic adjustment — including how countries respond to trade imbalances, capital flow volatility, exchange rate pressures, and crises — and on how structural differences across economies shape policy options and developmental trajectories.

Key topics include international trade theory and trade policy, multinational production and foreign direct investment, international capital markets and exchange rate determination, financial crises and the evolution of the international monetary system, development finance and aid effectiveness, and international labor mobility and remittances. Drawing on structuralist and political economy perspectives alongside mainstream economic approaches, students critically evaluate policy strategies for managing cross-border flows, with particular attention to their distributional, developmental, and macroeconomic consequences in an unequal global economy.
 

Format
The course combines teacher-led lectures and student-led seminars to develop advanced analytical skills in international economics. Lectures introduce core theoretical frameworks and apply structured economic reasoning to empirical and policy-relevant cases. Seminars foster critical discussion and guide the staged development of a required research paper in preparation for a final oral defense. The course concludes with an exam that assesses students’ ability to synthesize theoretical frameworks, empirical insights, and policy debates from across the semester.