Syllabus
I. Introductory topics
1. Introduction – globalization, development of global economy and of the role of international transactions in national economies. Economic networks and global value chains – introduction. (October 6th)
2. Global value chains continued – upgrading, analytical instruments. (October 13th)
3. Economic agents: consumer preferences – the role of differences in culture, attitudes and values around the globe. (October 20th)
4. Holiday (October 27th)
5. Modes of internationalization of economic activities: when should we trade and when institute a foreign subsidiary? Which strategy for which market? (November 3rd)
6. The role of governance and its international dimension. Principal-agent problem and agency problems. Corporate governance: relationship between the shareholders, board, management. (November 10th)
7. Holidays (November 17th) II. Foreign trade activities
8. Exporting and importing activities: prices, risks, insurance. INCOTERMS. Amazon and E-bay: effects on organization of international trade? Brief midterm. (November 24th)
9. Trade policies: practical aspects. Non-tariff barriers to trade. Embargoes and sanctions. (December 1st)
10. How to pay for imports and get paid for exports? Means and methods of payments. SWIFT. (December 8th). III. International investment and finance
11. Currencies in international business. Exchange rate risk and exchange rate exposure. Introduction to hedging. Cryptocurrencies and blockchains in international trade? (December 15th)
12. Taxes and international business. Tax havens. (December 22nd)
13. Corruption in international business. Current trends and issues in international business. Make up session for time lost in October and November (January 5th)
Annotation
This course is related to but does not overlap with undergraduate courses International Trade and International Finance taught at the IES. The course “Economics of Global Business” deals with international trade, international financial flows, and globalization of economic activities, but it focuses on additional topics and uses a different (more practical) perspective than the two aforementioned courses. It discusses many applied and institutional aspects of global economic activities and it also provides a brief insight into actual methods used in international business, as well as case studies with examples of interesting successes/failures. However, unlike many traditional courses of this type, which use rather soft and descriptive approaches, we will always try to provide also economic rationale and relevant economic models (as well as their empirical tests).
Please note that the course was moved to the Fall semester for the Academic year 2023/23 and to a new time slot. The course will be taking place on Friday afternoons (3:30 p.m. - 6:20 p.m.).