Advanced International Trade Theory and Policy

This work is intended to bring together the conceptual ideas about international trade presented in class and have you apply them to the study of one country. The end product will be a short paper, no less than 1500 words (about five double-spaced pages). You should feel free to write about whatever topic (relevant to international trade) you want. Want to explore, say, how copycat generic drugs from India have impacted pharmaceuticals markets? Go for it. Interested in the history of illegal ivory trade from Kenya? Great! Want to investigate the Maquiladora boom in Mexico? Awesome. Is your idea related to the international trade in goods and/or services? That will do just fine.

 

If you would like more structure, here is a basic one that might suit you: Imagine that you work as an analyst for an international consulting company. Your firm is looking for business opportunities in a new country. Your boss asks you to provide background information regarding this countrys trading history. You will want to provide plenty of factual information. For example, what and how much goods the country exports and imports. How has the countrys trade position changed over time (say, the last 50-75 years)? You might include graphs showing changes overtime. What factor inputs are abundant/scarce?  What does the country seem to have a comparative advantage in producing? What are government policies toward trade? Any barriers to trade we should know about? You will want to be able to answer these basic questions in your paper.

 

If you dont have inspiration for which particular country you want to focus on, I suggest it be a country large enough to be interesting(and have information out there) but not large enough so as to be overwhelming. You might try countries like Canada, Spain, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, or Argentina.

 

You are invited to focus on one or more specialty topics related to trade that we were able to cover only briefly (if at all) in class. You might be interested in things like immigration patterns for your country, inequality, trade treaties, howyour country treats intellectual property, outsourcing, taxation of multinational corporations, environmental regulations, and any other area of interest that might relate to trade.

 

If youre not sure whether or not your topic is acceptable, please ask the instructor. 

 

I want you to feel free to make this work your own. The rubric posted below is a rough guide, at best.  The hope is that as you start investigating your country, you will discover some aspect of your countrys experience in international markets that you will really want to explore. If you write primarily about that and, of course, relate it to the ideas presented in the class in a thoughtful way, you will do well. If, on the other hand,your paper is a mishmash of bits and pieces youve lumped together from all corners of the internet, you will do badly.