EC339      Half Unit
International Macroeconomics

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Availability

Requisites

Pre-requisites:

Before taking this course, students must have completed: (EC2B1 or EC1B3) and (EC2B3 or FM201)

Additional requisites:

Students should have completed Macroeconomics II (EC2B1), or Macroeconomics I (EC1B3) combined with either Macroeconomics II (EC2B3) or Macro-Finance (FM201), or equivalent.

This is an advanced undergraduate international macroeconomics course that uses a mix of theoretical, empirical, and policy frameworks to analyze topical problems in international economics. The objective of the course is to develop simple macroeconomic models of open economies that can be applied to international economic phenomena. We study the balance of payments, the determination of exchange rates, the effect of fiscal and monetary policies, currency crises, financial globalization, currency unions and the Euro, and the recent global and Euro crises, and Brexit. The specific topics to be covered include: 

•   The open economy and the balance of payments 

•   Determinants of the trade balance and the current account 

•   The foreign exchange market and interest rate parity 

•   Exchange rates, prices and interest rates; the trilemma of International Economics 

•   Currency crises 

•   Optimal Currency Area and the Euro; the Crisis in the Eurozone 

•   The 2007 -2009 Global Financial Crisis 

•   Brexit 

15 hours of lectures and 9 hours of classes in the Winter Term.
1 hours of classes in the Spring Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.

Students are expected to complete a problem set weekly, two of which will be marked, and feedback provided.

Students can consult the textbook:

• Paul Krugman, Marc Melitz and Maurice Obstfeld; International Economics: Theory and Policy, 12th edition, Pearson. (Earlier editions are also relevant).

Exam (100%), duration: 120 Minutes, reading time: 15 minutes in the Spring exam period