International Trade
University of Oslo
ECON4415 - Fall 2018 - Course- 10 ECTS
Tuesday 8:15-10:00, ES Auditorium 5
Three lectures are on Thursday 16:15-18:00, ES Auditorium 4 - see here
Lecturer: Yuan Zi (yuanzi.economic-at-gmail.com)
Office hours: Tuesday 10:00-12:00 (class weeks)
Wednesday 10:00-12:00 (upon request)
You can make the appointment here
Seminar (8 sessions): Wednesday 8:15-10:00, Seminar Room 101 (S101)
Course Description
This course is designed for Masters students specializing in economics. This course covers, with a focus on both theory and empirics, advanced topics in international trade (as well as economic geography).
The course is divided in four parts. The first considers the predictions of the neoclassical trade theories and their implications. The second presents new trade models with imperfect competition and economic geography. The third considers extensions of new trade theories including the model with firm-level heterogeneity and gravity equations. The last covers theories on trade policy and related empirics.
Goals
After the course, you should be able to address positive issues, such as: Why do countries trade? What goods do countries trade? What are the implications of openness for the location of production, industries, occupations, and innovative activity? And, what impedes trade and why do some countries deliberately erect policy impediments to trade? You should also be able to offer your thoughts on normative issues, such as: Is trade openness beneficial to a representative agent? And, Are there winners and losers from trade and if so, can we identify them? You should be able to develop your answers to above questions under a neoclassical setting as well as those with market failures, at the industry level as well as the firm-level, and in the presence of both mobile and immobile factors.
Main complementary textbooks
There are no compulsory reading books for this course. Use the listed textbooks and references to enhance your understanding of course materials.
Additional
Pre-requisites of the course
Grading
Outline (preliminary)
Lectures: Aug.21-Nov.13
Seminars: Sept.12-Nov.14
Seminars will be organized with a 45min exercises-solving, 45min group presentations on trade facts + selected papers, and 15min presentation based discussions for all participants of the seminar. The presentation will not count as part of your final grade, so don't worry about your presenting skills. Take this as a good chance to practice, and to get to know the course material better.
All papers are going to be classics of the field, so it will be good for the final exam and for your later dissertation as well.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Abbreviations: GFT: Gains from Trade; CA: Comparative Advantage; LCA: Law of Comparative Advantage; HO: Heckscher–Ohlin; PFS: Protection for Sale; WARP: Weak Axiom of Revealed Preference
Journal Abbreviations: AER: American Economic Review; EER: European Economic Review; EMA: Econometrica; JIE: Journal of International Economics; JPE: Journal of Political Economy; JDE: Journal of Development Economics. JEL: Journal of Economic Literature; NBER National Bureau of Economic Research (nber.org); QJE Quarterly Journal of Economics, RIESTAT: Review of Economics and Statistics; RES: Review of Economic Studies
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Lectures
Seminars
Resources
Announcements
University of Oslo
ECON4415 - Fall 2018 - Course- 10 ECTS
Tuesday 8:15-10:00, ES Auditorium 5
Three lectures are on Thursday 16:15-18:00, ES Auditorium 4 - see here
Lecturer: Yuan Zi (yuanzi.economic-at-gmail.com)
Office hours: Tuesday 10:00-12:00 (class weeks)
Wednesday 10:00-12:00 (upon request)
You can make the appointment here
Seminar (8 sessions): Wednesday 8:15-10:00, Seminar Room 101 (S101)
Course Description
This course is designed for Masters students specializing in economics. This course covers, with a focus on both theory and empirics, advanced topics in international trade (as well as economic geography).
The course is divided in four parts. The first considers the predictions of the neoclassical trade theories and their implications. The second presents new trade models with imperfect competition and economic geography. The third considers extensions of new trade theories including the model with firm-level heterogeneity and gravity equations. The last covers theories on trade policy and related empirics.
Goals
After the course, you should be able to address positive issues, such as: Why do countries trade? What goods do countries trade? What are the implications of openness for the location of production, industries, occupations, and innovative activity? And, what impedes trade and why do some countries deliberately erect policy impediments to trade? You should also be able to offer your thoughts on normative issues, such as: Is trade openness beneficial to a representative agent? And, Are there winners and losers from trade and if so, can we identify them? You should be able to develop your answers to above questions under a neoclassical setting as well as those with market failures, at the industry level as well as the firm-level, and in the presence of both mobile and immobile factors.
Main complementary textbooks
There are no compulsory reading books for this course. Use the listed textbooks and references to enhance your understanding of course materials.
- Markusen, Melvin, Kaempfer and Maskus: International Trade: Theory and Evidence (“MMKM” in the reading list)
- R. Feenstra “Advanced International Trade: Theory and Evidence”, Ed. 2003 (“Feenstra” in the reading list)
- Krugman, P. R. Geography and trade, 1991. Leuven: Leuven University Press. ISBN: 9780262610865.
Additional
- Helpman, E. & Krugman P., 1985: Market Structure and Foreign Trade, MIT Press.
- Combes, P.-P., Mayer, T. and Thisse, J., Economic geography, Princeton University Press. For new economic geography.
- Krugman, P. & Obstfeld M., International Economics, Addison-Wesley. Less advanced, for intuitions.
Pre-requisites of the course
- Intermediate Microeconomics (e.g. Snyder, Christopher and Nicholson. Microeconomic Theory: Basic Principals and Extensions) and Intermediate Econometrics (e.g. Green, Econometric Analysis).
- Bachelor's degree in Economics, or equivalent.
- ECON4200 – Microeconomics and Game Theory, ECON4215 – Microeconomics (discontinued), ECON4230 – Microeconomic Theory (discontinued) or ECON4235 – Microeconomic Theory (discontinued)
- The prerequisites are fulfilled if one of the courses mentioned above is taken during the same semester as ECON4415 – International Trade
- Students on the master’s programme in Economic Theory and Econometrics (the 5-year programme) also need ECON3010 – Anvendt økonomisk analyse.
Grading
- The grade is on a final exam (3 hours).
- More about examination can be found here.
- Voluntary term paper deadline: November 19th.
Outline (preliminary)
Lectures: Aug.21-Nov.13
- August 21 Introduction, Trade Facts, and Gains from trade, ES A5
- September 11 Technology and Trade (Ricardian model), ES A5
- September 13 Empirics on GFT, LCA, and Ricardian Model, ES A4 (16:15-18:00)
- September 20 Factor endowments and trade (HO model), ES A4 (16:15-18:00)
- September 25 Factor endowments and trade (empirics), ES A5
- September 27 New trade theories (scale economies and imperfect competition), ES A4 (16:15-18:00)
- October 2 Economy Geography, ES A5
- October 9 Firms in international trade (Melitz model), ES A5
- October 16 Firms in international trade (Melitz extensions), ES A5
- October 23 Firms in international trade (empirics), ES A5
- October 30 Gravity equations, ES A5
- November 6 Trade Policy (optimal trade policy, theory and evidence), ES A5
- November 13 Trade Policy II (political economy, theory and evidence), ES A5
Seminars: Sept.12-Nov.14
- September 12 (Ricardian model), S101
- September 26 (HO model), S101
- October 10 (New trade theories), S101
- October 17 (Melitz model), S101
- October 24 (Melitz model extentions), S101
- November 7 (Gravity), S101
- November 14 (PFS and recap), S101
Seminars will be organized with a 45min exercises-solving, 45min group presentations on trade facts + selected papers, and 15min presentation based discussions for all participants of the seminar. The presentation will not count as part of your final grade, so don't worry about your presenting skills. Take this as a good chance to practice, and to get to know the course material better.
All papers are going to be classics of the field, so it will be good for the final exam and for your later dissertation as well.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Abbreviations: GFT: Gains from Trade; CA: Comparative Advantage; LCA: Law of Comparative Advantage; HO: Heckscher–Ohlin; PFS: Protection for Sale; WARP: Weak Axiom of Revealed Preference
Journal Abbreviations: AER: American Economic Review; EER: European Economic Review; EMA: Econometrica; JIE: Journal of International Economics; JPE: Journal of Political Economy; JDE: Journal of Development Economics. JEL: Journal of Economic Literature; NBER National Bureau of Economic Research (nber.org); QJE Quarterly Journal of Economics, RIESTAT: Review of Economics and Statistics; RES: Review of Economic Studies
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Lectures
Seminars
Resources
Announcements
