International Trade
1 credits · 15 chapters · 76 flashcards
Pre mid-sem
- What globalization actually isNot startedGlobalization defined, its four types, and the five dimensions of economic globalization the professor names in a fixed order. · 45 min · 25 steps · Session 1Quiz: 6 questions, 70% to pass
- The international economy and the standard of livingNot startedThree periods of rapid globalization, what the anti-globalization movement blames, and interdependence measured as trade over GDP. · 45 min · 22 steps · Sessions 1-2Quiz: 6 questions, 70% to pass
- The gravity model of tradeNot startedNewton's law borrowed for trade: bigger economies trade more, higher trade costs trade less, and the proxies that let you estimate it. · 50 min · 22 steps · Session 2Quiz: 6 questions, 70% to pass
- Mercantilism and absolute advantageNot startedThe three questions trade theory asks, why the mercantilists got it wrong, and Adam Smith's answer worked out in labour hours. · 50 min · 20 steps · Session 3Quiz: 6 questions, 70% to pass
- The law of comparative advantageNot startedRicardo's answer to the country that is worse at everything: the smaller absolute disadvantage, the range of mutually beneficial trade, and how the gains get split. · 1 h · 28 steps · Sessions 3-4Quiz: 6 questions, 70% to pass
- Comparative advantage with money and exchange ratesNot startedTurning labour productivities into money prices, and finding the band of exchange rates over which the pattern of trade survives. · 50 min · 23 steps · Session 4Quiz: 6 questions, 70% to pass
- Factor endowments: the Heckscher-Ohlin setupNot startedWhy Ricardo is not enough, the eleven assumptions, and the two ratios that do all the work: factor intensity and factor abundance. · 55 min · 24 steps · Session 5Quiz: 6 questions, 70% to pass
Post mid-sem
- The Heckscher-Ohlin theorems and factor pricesNot startedThe two theorems the model rests on, what trade does to wages inside a country, and the empirical result that nearly sank the theory. · 55 min · 32 steps · Session 6Quiz: 6 questions, 70% to pass
- Economies of scale and intra-industry tradeNot startedWhy identical countries can still gain by trading, the four internal economies, the Indian clusters, and the index that measures two-way trade. · 55 min · 28 steps · Session 6Quiz: 6 questions, 70% to pass
- The product cycle and technology-based tradeNot startedHow a country invents a product, exports it, then ends up importing it, and the five stages that describe the journey. · 45 min · 26 steps · Session 6Quiz: 6 questions, 70% to pass
- Tariffs: types and partial equilibrium effectsNot startedWhat a tariff is, the three ways of charging one, and the four effects a small nation's tariff has, solved by hand on the class's own numbers. · 1 h · 26 steps · Session 7Quiz: 6 questions, 70% to pass
- Tariff welfare and effective protectionNot startedWho gains and who loses from a tariff, in money: the $60, $15, $30 and $15 box, then the effective rate of protection. · 1 h 5 min · 28 steps · Session 8Quiz: 6 questions, 70% to pass
- Import quotas and non-tariff barriersNot startedQuotas worked by hand, why they beat tariffs at restricting and lose at everything else, then VERs, the new protectionism, cartels, dumping and export subsidies. · 1 h 15 min · 32 steps · Session 9Quiz: 6 questions, 70% to pass
- The political economy of protectionismNot startedTwo fallacious arguments, two questionable ones, one qualified one, and then the institutions built to stop nations using any of them. · 1 h · 31 steps · Session 9Quiz: 6 questions, 70% to pass
- Modern trade in the era of sustainabilityNot startedSession 10 is a discussion of the WEF TradeTech report: what AI is doing to trade costs, how carbon rules are reshaping trade barriers, and who gets left out. · 45 min · 23 steps · Session 10Quiz: 6 questions, 70% to pass
Assessment
| Component | Weight | Note |
|---|---|---|
| End-Sem Exam | 40% | The only written paper, and it covers all ten sessions. There is no mid-sem in this course. |
| Quiz | 20% | No quiz date or pattern appears anywhere in the material, for either section. The professor's expectation row warns students to be ready for any surprise evaluation. |
| Class Participation | 10% | |
| Group Assignment | 15% | Announced in session 4, due in session 10, the discussion session on the World Economic Forum TradeTech report. |
| Individual Assignment | 15% | PLO 2a. Announced in session 3, due in session 9. |
What the exam looks like
One 40-mark end-sem covering all ten sessions, plus a 20-mark quiz. Together they are 60 per cent of the grade; the two assignments are another 30 per cent. The outline gives no section-by-section pattern, so the mock papers here infer one from the material.
Expect a written paper of the usual economics shape: a few objective or definition questions, two or three short notes, two or three numericals worked by hand with the method shown, and one long answer. The decks are heavy on diagrams, so draw and explain is very likely: the partial-equilibrium tariff diagram (Figure 8-1), the import-quota diagram (Figure 9-1), the product cycle (Figure 6-4) and the production frontier.
The quantitative content is bounded and predictable: the Ricardian wheat and cloth table with the range of mutually beneficial trade, comparative advantage with money at a given exchange rate, capital to labour ratios for factor intensity, the four tariff effects, the consumer and producer surplus box, the quota comparison, the rate of effective protection and the export-subsidy margin. Every number the class used is in the notes, and every one of them is drilled here.
Two things the paper is likely to reach for that are not in the Drive. The professor's own two research papers are set readings for sessions 3 to 4 and 7 to 8: expect a question that applies tariff theory to the US-China trade war, or WTO rounds to a bargaining game. Find both papers.
Carbaugh to Salvatore mapping, because the outline names Carbaugh chapters and the slides say Salvatore. Carbaugh Ch.1 The International Economy and Globalization becomes the professor's own globalization deck plus Salvatore Ch.1; Carbaugh Ch.2 Comparative Advantage becomes Salvatore Ch.2 plus the professor's gravity deck; Carbaugh Ch.3 Sources of Comparative Advantage becomes Salvatore Ch.5 (Heckscher-Ohlin) and Ch.6 (economies of scale); Carbaugh Ch.4 Tariffs becomes Salvatore Ch.8; Carbaugh Ch.5 Nontariff Trade Barriers becomes Salvatore Ch.9. The WEF report has no deck.
The exam is pen and paper. Practise the arithmetic by hand and write the method out; a correct number with no working scores half.
What the professor expects
Verbatim from the outline, and unusually blunt: "Students should pre-and post-read the articles covered in the class. They should be ready for any surprise evaluation." And: "Plagiarism and any unethical behaviour will not be encouraged."
The course requirement is to come prepared for each session by reading the reference material listed in the course plan. Sessions 3 to 4 and 7 to 8 are taught as lecture and discussion through research papers, and both papers are the professor's own work, so having read them is the participation mark.
Office hours are 9.30 to 18.00. The course email is an IIM Indore address, so the professor is visiting or cross-campus.
Books
- Carbaugh, International Economics, International 18th Edition (prescribed by the outline, but not in the Drive)
- Salvatore, International Economics (what the class was actually taught from; the Drive copy is the source of every page reference here, and PDF page = printed page + 40)
- Sengupta, A. and Rastogi, S. K., "US-China trade war data: truth and post-truth", World Economics 19(4), 189-212 (set reading for sessions 3 to 4; not in the Drive)
- Rastogi, S. K. and Sengupta, A., "Political Economy of the WTO Negotiations: A Game-Theoretic Explanation", International Negotiation 29(2), 244-260 (set reading for sessions 7 to 8; not in the Drive)
- World Economic Forum, Artificial Intelligence for Efficiency, Sustainability and Inclusivity in TradeTech 2025 (set reading for session 10; not in the Drive)