ECONOMICS 4527/5527 -- International Economics

Fall 2013 Students – Look at the materials below to get an overview of the course.  Look at the range of topics that can be used for your semester report.  Please note that we will continue to use the fifth edition of the textbook which is available as a used book.  Do not purchase the new edition of the textbook!

Fall 2012 Class Schedule

ECON 4527/5527-001 International Economics
   Tues-Thur, 9:45am-11:05am, Sam Wilson Hall, Room 329.

Fall 2012 Information Sheet

2012 Student Report Schedule

  November 6:  Dan Ligon, “The International Diamond Industry”
  November 8:  Ethan Carver, “Growth in the Chinese Economy”
  November 13:  Taylor Riden, “The Greek Financial Crisis”
  November 15:  Corey Clark, “The Group of 20”
  November 20:  Josh Rice, “World Coal Trade”
  November 22:  Thanksgiving Holiday
  November 27:  Robert Reed, “Trade Groups in Latin America”
  November 29:  Samantha Bozich, “Accession of Former Yugoslavia into the E.U.”
  December 4:  Shelby Frye, “Comparative Health Care Systems”
  December 6:  Review

Important Links

1. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (Missouri) is a convenient source of data and graphs on national and international business and economic matters. Look at their “International Economic Trends” publication to see the nations which they track, and the types of data they present.  http://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/iet/

2. The three “Bretton Woods Institutions” are the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization.  Together, these international agencies regulate and monitor important aspects of the global economy. Go to their main pages below and look at their functions.

            The International Monetary Fund:  http://www.imf.org/

            The World Bank:  http://www.worldbank.org/

            The World Trade Organization:  http://www.wto.org/

3. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is usually considered to be a spy agency.  However, most of their work has nothing to do with the “cloak and dagger” world.  Instead, they collect, analyze, and publish all types of information about various nations.  One of their most useful publications is “The World Factbook” which contains a wide range of current information on every nation in the world.  http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html/

4. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis is the primary source of information on U.S. international trade, balance of payments (international transactions), and international investment.  Go to http://www.bea.gov/  and click the link to “Survey of Current Business”.  Search by date and look at SCB monthly issues through a year to see when quarterly and annual data and analyses are routinely released.