International economics and business are crucial to understand national politics and current international affairs and global processes, from development alliances to political conflicts and the definition of global agendas.  The course considers questions such as: How does economic globalization constrain national democracy?  How do protectionism or countries’ political alliances affect business strategies?  How does international business activity affect the relationships among countries?  What challenges and opportunities do firms operating internationally face and what business strategies they use?  What is the expected role of firms in the implementation of global agendas?

The course starts examining key international economic institutions and their effects on countries’ politics and development.  It considers the past and present international trade and finance regimes, the role in these of states, multinationals and intergovernmental institutions, global economic crises, inequalities within and across countries, global economic governance and the global agendas.  

The second part of the course considers key international business topics, emphasizing their corporate social responsibility (CSR) component: management across different political and legal environments, internationalization and alliance strategies, global marketing, and global R&D and human resources management.  The study of these topics will consider their relationship with sustainable development and, particularly, with the 2030 Agenda’s Sustainable Development Goals.  The management knowledge acquired in the course enables students to apply this –as well as the rest of learning attained in this course and other Masters courses– in private sector careers.

A complete list of course topics is presented below. Class explanations emphasize the interlinkage between the topics considered in the first and the second parts of the course.  Current international news and opinion articles presented in class illustrate the course topics.  Documentary videos and illustrative case studies are also widely used during the course.

Assessment

The evaluation of the students is based on the following components:

1. Individual essay exercise (take-home) on international economy and politics (topics of the first part of the course) (40%)

2. Group essay exercise (take-home) on international business management (topics of the second part of the course) (40%)

3. Active class participation (20%)

4. Optional: Group presentation of an instructional case study (to complement the class participation grade)

Competences, learning outcomes and teaching activities (PDF)