Registrar for an on-line International Economics class:
University of Colorado - Boulder.

Course Information

Welcome to the Web version of International Economics. There are two ways of taking this course: semester paced and independent study. I have been teaching in the classroom since the early 1990s and have designed a Web course that reflects my experience teaching this class. International Economics emphasizes economic theory as it relates to international trade and finance, and the course will also focus on important economic, political and sociological global events taking place. Rather than trying to race through a textbook from front to back, this Web course will cover the same amount of material that I would cover if we were in a traditional classroom setting.

International Economics is an upper division course that covers essential economic concepts relating to the international economy and important developments in the global economy. The economic theory emphasized in the class will give the student a better understanding of the foundations for international trade. Understanding this material will allow students to relate the importance of trade to political and cultural relations.

Important developments in the world economy will be analyzed. We will look at how globalization is changing markets and impacting labor. Trends in the global economy will be studied in order to evaluate potential future changes. Recent events such as the Asian currency crisis and the upcoming unification of many European currencies will be discussed.

Each week students will cover assigned materials and participate in a threaded discussion forum that allows students to express their interpretation of the materials, state their viewpoint and interact with the other students in the class. The threaded discussion is for semester paced-students only. Grading will be based on a series of written assignments that covers the course materials, the quality of contributions to the threaded discussion and a short research paper that requires the student to take a deeper look at the economic and political situation in a developing country that they choose to report on.

Some of the topics covered in this class include:

• The theory of comparative advantage and the economic benefits from trade.
• Trade barriers.
• Exchange rates and international finance.
• A world tour, looking at economic conditions in Asia, Europe as well as North and South America.
• The impact of the global economy on labor markets and economic development.

As well as providing a quality learning experience, I hope that you gain a good deal of practical information from this class that you can use later in life to better understand the changes that are taking place.

Course Requirements

Here is the good news - there are no tests.

The course is split into thirteen units each covering a week of the semester. Grades are based on:

Written Assignments:

Assignments are designed to help the student process the reading materials and to develop analytical skills. The written assignments specified above cover materials from the textbook and consist of multiple choice and short answer questions that test the student's knowledge and proficiency working with of the materials covered.

There are six written assignments that must be submitted for evaluation. These assignments consist of multiple choice and short-answer questions that relate to the materials covered in the course. Unless notified otherwise, the deadline for submission of written assignments is midnight on Sunday.

Students must work individually and should submit all assignments by e-mail.

Written assignments comprise 70% of the semester grade.

Paper: students will be required to write a paper (seven to ten pages, double line-spaced, 12-point font, on a word processor) that takes a detailed look at the economic and political situation in a developing country of their choice.

The paper comprises 15% of the semester grade.

The paper allows the student to apply the course materials to a developing country. Students will develop the paper in the context of the materials covered in class during the semester. Students will review and analyze a country's policies towards exchange rates, foreign trade, domestic monetary systems and foreign policy.

Threaded Discussion: students are also required to participate in the class discussion forum on a regular basis. Students should look to contribute information that they have learned in the class and observations of the application of the class materials to the issues discussed in the forum. The instructor will evaluate the quality (not quantity) of individual student contributions to this forum and assign individual points that will be averaged into the grade.

Threaded Discussions comprise 15% of the semester grade.

Threaded discussion materials are based on articles taken from publications such as the Economist, Wall Street Journal and others. These articles are specific to an actual event or viewpoint and the goal is to link economic theory with current events. Class discussion will focus on understanding the economic applications of the article. Student comments should emphasize increasing knowledge of the course materials as the semester progresses.

Students should also look for related materials (e.g., web sites, newspaper or magazine articles) and events (e.g., public seminars, TV programs), and to share the information with the class in the Threaded Discussion.

Policies and Procedures

We will complete one section of the class per week. The class is divided into thirteen units.

To receive full credit, assignments must be submitted by their deadline. If you have have an emergency situation, please notify me as soon as possible.

Grading is based on the simple scale where 90%+ = A, 80%-89.99% = B, etc.

Textbook

International Economics, by Husted and Melvin (Harper Collins publisher).

Section	Topic	Readings	Assignment
#1	Introduction and Review of Some Basic Concepts The Basic Model Assumptions	Unit Summary Notes Textbook: Chapter 1 Textbook: Chapter 2, pages 28-40
#2	The Basic Model Solutions	Unit Summary Notes Textbook: Chapter 2, pages 40-51	Assignment #1
#3	The Classical Model of International Trade Absolute and Comparative Advantage	Unit Summary Notes Textbook: Chapter 3, pages 60-67 1897 AND 1997 - The century the earth stood still The Makings Of an Economic Miracle	Web discussion #1
#4	The Classical Model of International Trade Solution to the Classical Model	Unit Summary Notes Textbook: Chapter 3, pages 65-78	Assignment #2
#5	The Euro Currency	Europe's Single Currency Key EMU Questions The Euro	Web discussion #2
#6	The Heckscher-Ohlin Theory Basic Assumptions of the HO Model	Unit Summary Notes Textbook: Chapter 4, pages 92-102 The Global Economy Russia and the West	Web discussion #3
#7	The Heckscher-Ohlin Theory Equilibrium in the HO Model	Unit Summary Notes Textbook: Chapter 4, pages 102-115	Assignment #3
#8	Tests of Trade Models	Unit Summary Notes Textbook: Chapter 5 Two Deficits That Just Don't Matter Does Globalization Weaken Government? America's New Economy	Web discussion #4
#9	Tariffs	Unit Summary Notes Textbook: Chapter 6	Assignment #4
#10	International Trade and Economic Growth The Balance of Payments	Unit Summary Notes Textbook: Chapters 10 and 12 International Capital Flows The Current Account	Assignment #5
#11	The Foreign Exchange Market	Unit Summary Notes Textbook: Chapter 11 The Mexican Currency Crisis	Assignment #6
#12	The Asian Currency Crisis	Japan's Economic Plight Asia in 2015
#13		The Asian Currency Crisis	Web discussion #5
#14	Paper Week	The OECD: http://www.oecd.org/ The CIA World Factbook: http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/pubs.html Country background notes from the U.S. State Dept. Country Commercial Guides, prepared by the U.S. embassies for their respective countries: Economic research and forecasts from the Economist Intelligence Unit: Keyword is EIU for America Online Users. Web address is http://www.eiu.com	Class Paper

Contact: Jay Kaplan