Syllabus
Schedule of lectures/topics: 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. (Feb 17th)
2. Global value chains continued – upgrading, analytical instruments. (Feb 24th)
3. Economic agents: consumer preferences – the role of differences in culture, attitudes and values around the globe. (March 3rd)
4. Modes of internationalization of economic activities: when should we trade and when institute a foreign subsidiary? Which strategy for which market? (March 10th)
5. The role of governance and its international dimension. Principal-agent problem and agency problems. Corporate governance: relationship between the shareholders, board, management. (March 17th) II. Foreign trade activities
6. Exporting and importing activities: prices, risks, insurance. INCOTERMS. Amazon and E-bay: effects on organization of international trade? (March 24th)
7. Trade policies: practical aspects. Non-tariff barriers to trade. Embargoes and sanctions. (March 31st)
8. Holidays (April 7th)
9. How to pay for imports and get paid for exports? Means and methods of payments. SWIFT. Blockchains. (April 14th). III. International investment and finance
10. Currencies in international business. Exchange rate risk and exchange rate exposure. Introduction to hedging. Cryptocurrencies. (April 21st)
11. Taxes and international business. Tax havens. (April 28th)
12. Kickback: Corruption in international business. (May 5th) IV. Summary, latest trend
13. Current trades, new sources of data, analytical instruments. (May 12th)
14. Reserved as make up class for the holidays. Final exam. (May 19th)
Annotation
This course is related to but does not overlap with undergraduate courses International Trade and International Finance taught at the IES. Course “Economics of Global Business” deals with international trade, international financial flows, globalization of economic activities, but it focuses on additional topics and uses a different (more practical) perspective than the two afore-mentioned 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 and their empirical tests.