哈佛大学经济系教授Pol Antràs 2014秋季在MIT经济系开设的本科生国际贸易课程。

4.54: International Trade and Investment
Fall 2014
Lecture: Mondays, Wednesdays 10.30AM-12PM in E17-136
Recitation: Fridays 11AM-12PM in E17-139

Required Text: Paul Krugman, Maurice Obstfeld, and Marc Melitz: International Economics: Theory and Policy, 10th edition, Addison Wesley. Important Note: Cheaper copies may be available online.

Instructor
Professor Pol Antràs

Office: E17-238
Email: pantras@fas.harvard.edu (I do not check my MIT email account, if have one)
Office hours: Mondays, 1-2PM
Note: Please add “14.54” to the email subject line
Teaching Fellow: Rodrigo Rodrigues Adao
Email: rradao@mit.edu
Office hours: 5:30-6:30PM

Course Description and Pre-requisites
This course will analyze the causes and consequences of international trade and investment. We will investigate why nations trade, what they trade, and who gains from trade. We will then analyze the motives for countries or organizations to restrict or regulate international trade and study the effects of such policies on economic welfare.
Topics covered will include the effects of trade on economic growth and wage inequality, multinationals, foreign direct investment and international migration. We will also spend some time discussing aspects of the current debate on “globalization” such as the use of international labor standards, and interactions between trade and environmental concerns.
Although the course will emphasize the understanding of past and current events in the world economy, we will rely on formal economic modeling to help us understand these events. We will therefore extensively use microeconomic tools that you have learned in 14.01. Having taken this course is a pre-requisite for this class. Intermediate microeconomics at the level of 14.03 is also recommended. It is important that you not only be familiar with these tools and models, but that you also feel comfortable using and manipulating them. If you are taking this class, I will assume this to be the case. If you do not feel absolutely comfortable with these models, I strongly urge you to review your 14.01 textbook and notes early on in the semester.