Module leader: Professor Martin Ricketts (martin.ricketts@buckingham.ac.uk)
Summer Term (15 units)
Many of the most important global issues are economic in nature. Questions of economic stability, trade policy, poverty, development, the environment, energy, technology transfer and even public health and education can only be properly understood with some knowledge of economic principles. This module is designed to provide potential diplomats, negotiators, servants of international agencies and charities with the knowledge of economic ideas necessary to understand and to criticise professional economic advice. The module aims also to introduce the elements of modern institutional economics. Institutions such as property systems, monetary arrangements, social conventions, political rules and constitutional protections are increasingly seen as central to economic development. Global affairs are often closely connected to the process of institutional evolution and institutional design.
This module deals with economic analysis and the global economic system. Students will also take Economic Issues in Global Affairs 2: Economic Topics in Global Policy.
Module outline
- The gains from trade
- Efficiency and the competitive market
- The importance of institutions
- Principles of public policy
- Macroeconomics and monetary economics
- International trade and finance
- International economic growth
Assessment
This module is assessed together with Economic Issues in Global Affairs 2: Economic Topics in Global Policy:
- 2-hour examination in Summer Term Week 9 (80%)
- Piece of assessed work – details provided at start of module (20%)
Key texts
Background reading:
- Stiglitz, J. Globalization and its discontents (London: Penguin, 2003). ISBN: 0-14-101038-X.
- Bhagwati, J. In defense of globalization (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). ISBN: 0-19-530003-3.
- Wolf, M. Why globalization works: the case for the global market economy (2nd ed., New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005). ISBN: 0-300-10777-3.
- Seitz, J.L. Global issues: an introduction (Oxford: Blackwell, 2002). ISBN: 0-631-22642-7.
- Norberg, J. In defence of global capitalism (Stockholm: Timbro, 2001). ISBN: 91-7566-503-4.
- Legrain, P. Open world: the truth about globalisation (London: Abacus, 2002). ISBN: 0-349-11644-X.
- De Soto, H. The mystery of capital: why capitalism triumphs in the West and fails everywhere else (New York: Basic Books, 2000). ISBN: 0-465-01615-4.
Institutional economics:
- Kasper, W. & M.E. Streit, Institutional economics (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 1998). ISBN: 1-85898-941-8.
Microeconomics:
- Ekelund, R.B. & R.D. Tollison, Microeconomics: private markets and public choice (7th ed., London: Addison Wesley, 2006). ISBN: 0-321-35700-0.
Monetary and international economics:
- DeLong, J.B. & M.L.Olney, Macroeconomics (2nd ed., Boston MA : McGraw Hill, 2006). ISBN: 0-07-111113-1.
