International Trade, 180.241 (Fall 2007)

 


 
| Contact Information | Exam Dates | Course Outline | Course Requirements, Homework  and Housekeeping | 

 

 Bulletin Board


01/24/2008: Final Exam pick-up on Jan 28th 5-6pm, Jan 30th 3-4pm and Jan 31st 3-4pm at Mergenthaler 466.

02/22/2007: The course is open to any student who has attended the first lecture and who fulfills the prerequisite two-semester Principles of Economics. Therefore, the course will be open until Thursday, September 13th, 2007, one week (for shopping) after the start of classes. If you attend the second class meeting on Sept. 14 with an Add Form, it will be signed. Students will not be admitted after that.

Contact Information

Instructor: Dr. Frank D. Weiss, Adjunct Associate Professor in the Economics Department

Class Meetings: Fridays, 2:00PM--4:00PM, Remsen 101

 

Office Hours: Fridays, 11:00AM--2:00PM (minus quick lunch) Mergenthaler 4th Floor, or, more likely, sitting outside, smoking; and for brief questions, after class, in class. There are no office hours on the day of the midterm exam. 
 

e-mail: mailto:fdw@jhu.edu

Teaching Assistants:

1.  Kevin Hassani  -  Office Hours: Wednesday 1:30-3:30 PM, Mergenthaler 466, email: hassani@jhu.edu

2.  Kareem Ismail  -  Office Hours: Thursday 1:00-3:00 PM, Mergenthaler 466, e-mail: kismail1@jhu.edu

3.  Kevin Thom     -  Office Hours: Tuesday 1:30-3:30 PM, Mergenthaler 466, e-mail: kthom1@jhu.edu

   

 


 

Exam Dates 

Midterm I:  Friday, October 19, 2007
Link to 2006 midterm

Link to 2005 midterm
Link to 2004 midterm
Link to 2003 midterm
Link to 2002 midterm


Midterm II:  None in Fall, 2007
Link to 2006 midterm

Link to 2005 midterm

Final:   Sunday, December 16, 2007, 9 AM - 11 AM. Room: Remsen 101. CONFIRMED.
Link to 2006 final exam
Link to 2005 final exam
Link to 2004 final exam
Link to 2003 final exam
Link to 2002 final exam

Here are some tips on writing economics exams, by Dr. Daniel Hinze, TA Emeritus.

 

 


 

Course Outline

The first part of the course examines the causes of trade, the sources of the gains from trade, and the domestic and international distribution of those gains. In addition, it introduces the politico-economic causes of trade policy. The second part examines the instruments and the consequences of trade policy, namely tariffs and quantitative restrictions, and their manifestation as anti-dumping and safeguard measures. Salient analytical issues, which are also topical, such as trade and child labor, trade and the environment, and preferential trade agreements are addressed with the same analytical tools developed and applied throughout.

 

Lectures are broadly compatible with any good Trade text. James Markusen, et. al., International Trade: Theory and Evidence, McGraw-Hill, 1995, is available free as an electronic reserve. Everyone in class should be able to understand Markusen with some effort. If you find it too laborious, try Steven Husted, Michael Melvin, International Economics, 7th ed., Pearson 2006, instead or in addition. Delightful required collateral reading is Douglas Irwin, Free Trade Under Fire, 2nd ed., Princeton U Press 2005.  These three books will be on print reserve, and all other readings will be on electronic reserve (e).


To keep abreast of current trade policy developments, log onto the websites of the World Trade Organization (http://www.wto.org/) and the US Trade Representative (http://www.ustr.gov/).


Electronic Course Reserves: here


                                             Weekly Topic Schedule (One text and all readings are required)

Topic

Markusen, et. al.

Husted, Melvin

 

1. Comparative

    Advantage

Chapter 7. Markusen really is terse here. You may want to consult Husted, Melvin.

Chapter 3.

 

Irwin, 2005, Chapter 2.

 

2a. Reciprocal

    Demand

Review Chapters 2, 3.

Chapter 4.

Chapter 2.

 

We substitute Import Demand and Export Supply Curves for Excess Demand and Offer Curves (same content, but easier to work with)

 

2b. Intertemporal Trade.
(The trade deficit or surplus)

Chapter 23.1
Ethier preferred.

 

Wilfred Ethier, Modern International Economics, 3rd ed., Norton 1995, Sections 10.7, 10.8 e

3,4. The Heckscher-Ohlin
 Model

Chapter 8.

 Chapter 4, incl. Appendix 4.1

 

Kaushik Basu, “Child Labor: Cause, Consequence, and Cure, with Remarks on International Labor Standards”, Journal of Economic Literature, 37/3 (September, 1999), Section 6.1, 6.2. e

Irwin, 2005, Chapter 4.





 

5. The Specific Factors
 Model

Chapter 9.

Ethier preferred. e

 Chapter 4, Appendix 4.1

 

Eric Edmonds, Nina Pavcnik, “The Effect of Trade Liberalization on Child Labor”, Journal of International Economics, 65/2 (March, 2005). Nontechnical summary at http://www.nber.org/digest/jul02/w8760.html is required. e

 

6. Scale Economies and
Imperfect Competition

Chapters 11, 12.
(bits required) e

Chapter 5, pp. 136 - 144.

 




7.                                                        

Midterm  Exam




8. Trade Policy Under

Perfect Competition

Chapter 15.1-15.3, 16.1-16.3.

Chapter 6, 7.

 

9. Terms-of-Trade,
Infant Industry, and
Environmental Protection

Chapter 15.4 - 15.5.

Chapter 10.


Irwin, 2005, Chapter 6.

 

10. Trade Policy and
Corporate Strategy
Under Imperfect Competition

Chapter 17.
(bits required) e

Chapter 8.

 

Irwin, 2005, Chapter 5.

 

11.  Preferential Trading

Agreements (PTA’s)


Chapter 9.

 

12, 13. The International
Trading System & Political Economy
of Trade Policy


Chapter 8, cont'd.

 

Irwin, 2005, Chapter 3, 7.

 

 

Course Requirements, Homework, and Housekeeping

Class participation is welcome.

Graded homework assignments together constitute 1/4 of the grade; a mid-term exam will count for a further 1/4 of the grade; and a two-hour final exam will count for the remaining 1/2 of the grade. Attendance may be taken at random intervals, and a single random number of points may be awarded to those present each time. This would reduce the weight of the exams and homework correspondingly. Exams will consist of technical questions, interpretative questions, questions on the collateral readings and, if appropriate, on the news.

Homework assignments will be conducted through Aplia, an on-line homework excercise machine. Students must enroll in this facility, for which there is a $35 fee. If you are registered, you will receive instructions on how to enroll. The instructor receives no financial rewards from assigning Aplia. Students are encouraged to tackle Aplia practice homework assignments in small groups of 2-4, but each student separately recieves a grade for Aplia graded homework assignments.

Teaching Assistants will each hold weekly office hours and two sets of review sessions. You may ask TA's for help on Aplia practice problems, but not on Aplia graded problems. Questions for exam review must be submitted to the TA's by e-mail, in advance.

Students are expected to fulfill all course requirements and adjust their personal schedules to the course. This includes sports. There is no senior option. Postponements of exams are possible only in case of heinous illness, communicated by your doctor  If you were well enough to take an exam, you were not sick. Missed exams will receive zero points.

Graded midterm exams will be returned one week after the midterm. Final exam grades will be submitted within 100 hours of the end of the final. Then, the instructor and the TA's go on break, just like you. The exams will therefore be returned after Winter Break, during TA office hours to be posted in January on the Bulletin Board section at the top of this page. Anyone wishing to have his or her exam returned sooner should bring a sufficiently franked, stamped, self-addressed envelope to the final exam. Final exams will be discarded at the close of business on January 31st.

Regrading policy: Exams will be regraded only upon submission of the exam to a TA, together with a written request containing an explanation for the request. You must use the form you can download here to submit your request, and hand it to a TA after you have looked at your exam. The entire exam would be regraded. Personal or e-mail requests for regrades or explanations not adhering precisely to this procedure will be ignored.  However, graders' arithmetic errors can be corrected by a TA on the spot. 

 

  

 

 

 

 


 

 Send suggestions and comments on this page to khassani@jhu.edu