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INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS AND GLOBALIZATION

Oggetto:

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS AND GLOBALIZATION

Oggetto:

Anno accademico 2020/2021

Codice dell'attività didattica
CPS0365
Docente
Mario Aldo Cedrini (Titolare dell'insegnamento)
Corso di studi
Master's Degree Course in Area and global studies for international cooperation
Anno
1° anno
Periodo didattico
Primo semestre
Tipologia
Caratterizzante
Crediti/Valenza
6
SSD dell'attività didattica
SECS-P/02 - politica economica
Modalità di erogazione
Tradizionale
Lingua di insegnamento
Inglese
Modalità di frequenza
Facoltativa
Tipologia d'esame
Scritto
Prerequisiti
Students of "Area and Global Studies for International Cooperation" without previous experiences of studying Economics are invited to attend a "Preparatory course of Economics" offered by the Master's Degree. The course provides a basic introduction to the economics discipline, its main principles and the way of reasoning adopted by economists. It is generally divided into two main sections, devoted respectively to Micro- and Macro- Economics, and includes some basic knowledge of International Economics. The preparatory course starts right at the beginning of the Master's programme and runs for the duration of 6 weeks, with a total amount of 30 teaching hours; the course in International Economics and Globalization will thus start at the beginning of November.
Information concerning dates and registration are available at: https://www.agic.unito.it/do/avvisi.pl/Show?_id=yfbl.
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Sommario insegnamento

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Obiettivi formativi

The course aims at providing the basic theoretical instruments for the comprehension of the historical and ongoing processes of globalization in a "global political economy" perspective, that combines theory, history, and contemporary issues and debates, allowing students to understand the current debate about globalization and the main paradigms and orientations as regards international cooperation. The main focus is on how the policies of autonomous nations and regions interact at the international level in a globalized economy, and on the desirability of an international economic order (and related institutions) enhancing the policy space available to member countries (and emerging economies in particular). 

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Risultati dell'apprendimento attesi

On completion, students will demonstrate:

- to have acquired knowledge of the terminology, principles, main techniques, and of the historical evolution of the discipline of global political economy (knowledge and understanding),

- to have acquired the ability to understand theoretical and applied aspects conveyed by the textbook and complementary readings (knowledge and understanding),

- to be able to use the methods of global political economy and international macroeconomics to analyse socio-economic issues related to globalization, to evaluate the available forms and possibilities of international cooperation, as well as to understand the current debate on economic policies in the international and in regional contexts (applying knowledge and understanding),

- to analyze effects and implications of economic policies, as well as the trade-offs implied in policy-making, in environments shaped by strong regional and international interdependence (applying knowledge and understanding),

- to be able to identify rooms for manoeuvre available to policy-makers of national and regional entities in globalized contexts, and reflect upon the character of a desirable reform of the international architecture (making judgments), 

- autonomy of judgement, and the skills required to present in a logical and efficient manner the knowledge acquired during the course, in both oral and written form, by using communication forms adequate to different categories of listeners (communication skills),

- to be able to interpret available international macroeconomic data, showing full awareness of the existence of (and possibility to use) different interpretative models for macroeconomic phenomena (applying knowledge and understanding),

- to detect the impact of globalization (de jure and de facto) on national countries' and regional economies' policy space (making judgements),

- to have acquired the competencies and abilities to learn required to apply in an original manner methods and tools they have become familiar with during the course to conduct further autonomous researches (in different contexts, that is in both professional contexts and in specialising educational contexts) intended to deepen, extend and update the course contents (learning skills).

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Modalità di insegnamento

The course consists in 36 hours of frontal lectures, which may include tutorials on the course contents. Students will in any case be actively engaged in learning, and will be asked to apply and contextualize the theoretical concepts acquired in real-life issues, by producing solutions and arguments for specific case studies.  

In compliance with the UniTo provisions about teaching activities during the Covid-19 pandemic and specifically for the 2020-21 academic year, this course has activated an Online teaching solution. Online learning occurs through live video streaming events via Webex. Students have to register for this course, both here at the bottom of this page (Campusnet) and at the Moodle platform page. The teacher will send web links for streaming lectures, while teaching materials (as well as video recordings) will be made available at the Moodle page. 

The teachers will schedule meetings for interacting and discussing the course contents with students both online and, should the circumstances be favourable, in presence.

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Modalità di verifica dell'apprendimento

IMPORTANT

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, assessment occurs via an oral examination on Webex of some twenty minutes, aiming at verifying whether students have acquired the main contents of the course as well as the competencies required to analyse the problem of policy space in a context of globalization. The examination is based upon the textbooks and teaching material listed in this page (maximum score of 30/30). Students who took the essay option (see below) and presented their work at the end of the course will take a reduced oral examination of 5/10 minutes on some basic contents of the course (maximum score of 10/30, to be added to the essay score).

Essay option: students who attend regularly can participate in group (3/4/5) work and write a paper, that should be no longer than 5,000 words, on a specific topic related to the course contents, to be submitted by the deadline established by the teacher (between the end of the course and the beginning of the exam session) Students will then deliver an oral presentation with PowerPoint support (20 minutes in length; 10 minutes for discussion).

Given the collective-in-nature character of the essay, and the need to evaluate individual acquisition of competencies and individual abilities, students who opt for the essay have in any case to obtain a positive (that is, more than 5 over 10) score in the individual (short-answer) abovementioned reduced oral examination. 

Essays will investigate a specific issue treated in UNCTAD’s TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT REPORT, 1981-2011: Three decades of thinking development, available at: https://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/gds2012d1_en.pdf. Papers will first briefly introduce and historically contextualize the issue in an “international political economy” perspective (the textbook, suggested readings and course slides provide the basic theoretical framework), by adopting the perspective of developing countries. They will then retrace earlier analyses of the selected issue in previous Trade and Development Reports (available at: https://unctad.org/en/Pages/Publications/TradeandDevelopmentReport.aspx), and find further developments and new elements for discussion in TDRs published from 2012 on.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

  • The concept of policy space
  • Nation states, policy coordination and global governance
  • Financial liberalization, capital flows and capital controls
  • Export-led growth and its limits
  • The Doha development round
  • Instability in commodity markets and stabilization schemes
  • UNCTAD’s neo-structural approach to development
  • The developmental origins of Bretton Woods
  • Debt, crises and structural adjustment programs
  • Development and policy-making: Strategic (the need to experiment) vs. comprehensive (one-size-fits-all) visions
  • South-South cooperation
  • The surrender of public authorities to the power of financial markets
  • The rise and decline of fiscal policy
  • The current international non-system: an interregnum of “productive incoherence”?

 

- - - 

[In general, in this course, assessment is through a written exam at the end of the course.

Students must take a 90-minutes written exam on the whole ensemble of topics covered during the course. This includes 5 short-answer questions (each yielding a maximum score of 2/30), needed to evaluate whether students have acquired the basic contents of the course (principles, methods, concepts, terms, and theories), and 2 long-answer questions (each yielding a maximum score of 10/30), which will serve to assess the acquisition of competencies and know-how required to analyse a problem related to globalization and international cooperation, suggest an interpretation, and adequate solutions, in full awareness of the complexity of such problems, which imply endless repercussions, and of the possibility to employ alternative basic assumptions and theoretical frameworks. To get access to the written exam, students must register online by using the Esse3 - System of the University of Turin, and an identification card. During the exam, it is not allowed to use mobile phones, textbooks or notes of any kind, nor papers different from those that have been made available at the beginning of the exam. To pass the examination, students must reach a score of 18/30]. 

 

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Programma

Introduction to "international economics and globalization" as field of study, and to global political economy as discipline.

History and periods of globalization.

Basic principles and main theoretical tools of open-economy macroeconomics. 

Anarchy in the international environment and the need for a global framework promoting the general interest: the historical evolution of the international economic order, from the gold standard of the first era of globalization to the current disorder.

The Bretton Woods system: birth of a monetary system, its developmental orientation, the legacy of its "embedded liberalism" to today's world, and the continuing relevance of the "Keynes plan" for global reform. 

The rise and fall of development economics in historical perspective, from the dawn of the discipline to recent approaches. 

The problem of policy space in a globalized world: impact of globalization on the state; regionalism and globalization; the future of the international economic order. 

South-South cooperation: relevance, challenges, opportunities. 

Testi consigliati e bibliografia

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The course employs "Global Political Economy", edited by John Ravenhill (Oxford University Press, 2016), as mandatory reading for both attending and non attending students, as well as main theoretical foundation for the understanding and analysis of globalization and international cooperation (chapters 1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13).

The course is also based (suggested reading) on The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) "Trade and Development Report" (TDR), issued every year for the annual session of the Trade and Development Board. The Report analyses current economic trends and major policy issues of international concern, and makes suggestions for addressing these issues at various levels.

Students will also have to read (mandatory for both attending and non attending students) the book "Trade and Development Report 1981-2011. Three decades of thinking development" (available at: http://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/gds2012d1_en.pdf).

As to suggested (non mandatory readings), students are invited to read the latest TDR (available at: http://unctad.org/en/Pages/Publications/TradeandDevelopmentReport.aspx) and some selected monographic chapters from some recent issues of the TDR, focusing on the reform of the international architecture (TDR 2015, chapter 3), policy space (TDR 2014, chapters 3, 4, 7), and international cooperation (TDR 2017, chapter 7).

Attending students will be given selected advanced material to read for further study (in any case, references to this material will be made available here in this website). Dani Rodrik's "The Globalization Paradox: Democracy and the Future of the World Economy" (Oxford University Press, 2012) is a highly recommended reading.



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