This is an intermediate course in international political economy (IPE), situated halfway between an introductory course and a purely research-oriented course. 

We start from accepting that IPE can be defined in three different ways: 

1. The inter-disciplinary study of international economic phenomena that are at least partly affected by politics. Example: the recent trade war between the USA and China, one of whose causes may have been prior changes in US domestic politics. 

2. The inter-disciplinary study of international political phenomena which are at least partly affected by economic circumstances. Example: tensions between the Italian government and the European Commission in 2019-2020, one of whose causes may have been the lack of growth of the Italian economy since 2007.

3. The use of economic concepts and methods to understand international affairs. Example: Bargaining between Britain and Iran may be analyzed using bargaining models of vote-maximizing politicians.    

IPE can be extended to cover numerous policy areas, such as trade, monetary affairs, foreign direct investment and portfolio investment, competition policy, taxation, immigration, financial regulation, development assistance, energy, water management, climate change, etc. In this course we focus on four of these policies: trade (sessions 2 and 3), monetary relations (sessions 4 and 5), finance (sessions 7 and 8), and antitrust (sessions 9 and 10). The goal during these sessions is to acquaint students with the main concepts, theories, methods, and findings in IPE.

Evaluación

• Mid-term examination: 30%
• Final examination: 30%
• Research paper: 40% 

Competencias, resultados de aprendizaje y actividades formativas (PDF)