Concordia University

Department of Economics
ECONOMICS 319
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC POLICY AND INSTITUTIONS
Summer 2012
Section CA
Instructor: Carol Lau
Office: H 1155-07
Office Hours: TJ 10:00-11:00
E-mail: clau@alcor.concordia.ca
Schedule: TJ 12:30-15:00
Location: MB 5.265

Course objectives
This course will provide an introduction to the theories, policies and institutions concerning international trade and
finance. The first portion of the course would examine some traditional and contemporary trade models that would
answer the questions concerning why countries trade, what they trade, how trade affects factor prices (income
distribution), why countries intervene in trade and what consequences arise from their intervention. The trade section
would end with discussions on some trade agreements and organizations. In the finance portion, we will cover topics
such as the balance of payments, theories of exchange rates and exchange rate systems, and some recent financial crisis.
The course would end with discussions on some international financial institutions.
Required Textbook and Course Material
The electronic textbook package for this course is available online, supported by Kendall-Hunt Publishing and Great
Rivers Technologies. You can buy the access codes from http://webcom3.grtxle.com/international, or from the
Concordia Bookstore. Note that online purchases are non-refundable. All textbook royalties are used to support microfinance projects through Kiva - http://www.kiva.org/lender/chuihacarol7266.
The text chapters, study problems, weekly labs and forum threads are available through the course website. The content
of the website will be updated throughout the semester. The midterm and final exam may cover current events and
topics that are not posted on this course website. Hence, class attendance is crucial.
Up until June 28th 2012, the add/drop deadline, students can download the text chapters, study problems and class notes
for Chapters 1, 2 and 3 from our temporary course site at http://alcor.concordia.ca/~clau. Students will not be able to
access the labs and forum via this temporary site. After this date, should students decide to continue with the course,
please purchase the access codes to gain full access to the course materials. No labs or any graded work will be due prior
to June 28th 2012.
Grading Policy
Ten Online Labs: 15% (plus two bonus labs, so students can earn more than 15% for this grade component.)
Forum Online Class Participation: 10% (due July 29th midnight and the midnight before our final exam.)
Midterm Exam: 25%, July 24th Tuesday, in class, 12:30-14:30.
Final Exam: Cumulative, 50% (To Be Scheduled by the Examinations Office.)
Midterm
Numerous past midterms and answers will be posted on our course site for reference. Because July 25th Wednesday is
the DISC deadline, our midterm and answers will be posted on our course site on the evening of July 24th so that
students will have an idea of how they have performed in their midterm. The graded midterms will be returned to the
students after July 25th.
Weekly Labs (OPEN BOOK Quizzes)
Students are required to submit one lab for each chapter, with the exception of Chapter 4 where there will be two labs.
Each lab consists of randomly chosen true/false and multiple-choice questions that are electronically graded. Each lab is
also timed, similar to the traditional in-class quizzes. These questions may appear in the exams.
Online Forum Discussion (Blog)
Discussion questions are created to accompany each chapter. Students are encouraged to actively participate in the
online discussion, given our limited lecture duration. Students must list their full name when they post an entry.
Instructions on how to post entries and samples of poor/good/excellent entries will be posted on our course site.