INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND COMPETITIVENESS
Academic year and teacher
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- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2022/2023
- Teacher
- SILVIA BERTARELLI
- Credits
- 8
- Curriculum
- Small and medium enterprises(SMEs) in international markets
- Didactic period
- Primo Semestre
- SSD
- SECS-P/01
Training objectives
- This course will cover the basic tools to understand what determines the flow of goods and services across countries and the international organization of production. In particular, we will study theoretical as well as empirical issues related to trade flows, trade costs, multinationals, outsourcing and vertical specialization. These issues will be approached in perfectly and imperfectly competitive settings, at the industry- and firm-level. Finally, some introductory concepts of the economics of e-commerce will be presented, with a special focus on small businesses.
Upon completing the course students will acquire a theoretical framework to understand the complex issues raised by the economic interdependence of nations, with a special focus of the firm’s point of view, and to analyze them in a systematic way. Prerequisites
- The prerequisites for this course are principles of microeconomics (production theory, cost curves, profit maximization, general equilibrium theory, monopoly).
Attendance is strongly recommended (not compulsory) Course programme
- Absolute and comparative advantage 3 hours
Neoclassical trade models 15 hours
Trade models with increasing returns and monopolistic competition 6 hours
Firm heterogeneity theory 6 hours
International movement of labor and capital 3 hours
Offshoring of goods and services 3 hours
Outsourcing versus vertical integration 3 hours
E-commerce 6 hours
A detailed program will be available in Google classroom. Didactic methods
- Lessons, seminars and presentations.
Lessons will be organized in presence. Learning assessment procedures
- Attending students will participate to at least 70% of frontal classes.
Detailed information about exam procedures will be communicated through google classroom as soon as possible.
To pass the exam the student must obtain a minimum score of 18 out of 31 (cum laude). Reference texts
- Feenstra RC and Taylor AM (2017) International Trade, McMillan. ISBN: 978-1319127633
Further readings will be listed in the course google classroom.
