The paper will be about 6-8 page long (double spaced) on a topic of your choice. The topic can be chosen from the three main divisions of International Economics: The Pure Trade Theory, International Finance, and the Open Economy Macroeconomics. Some interesting topics include: Theory and Practice of Trade Liberalization, Protectionism, The Trump Trade Wars, Administered Protection, Outsourcing, The Subprime Mortgage Crisis, the European Sovereign Debt Crisis, The refugee Crisis in Middle East and North Africa, International Factor Movements, Recent US Trade Policy, Regional Trade Agreements such as the EU, MERCOSUR, ASEAN, APEC, etc.
The negotiated trade agreement, between the US and the EU, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) can be interesting topics. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and many more. Students can also write papers regarding the role of International organizations in the international economy, such institutions are the GATT- WTO, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the World Bank and the IMF.
Other interesting topics are: exchange rate determination and exchange rate policies pursued by various countries. A very popular and interesting topic is the exchange rate determination of the dollar versus the euro or versus the Chinese Renminbi, the Japanese yen, or some other important currency. There is a plethora of interesting topics in international economics. I will discuss with the students their topics before they begin writing their papers. One very timely topic is the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. There are many topics related to this issue that students can pursue as their topic of their research papers. Lastly COVID-19 is an excellent and important topic as well.
For all papers students must employ international data for the relevant variables to support and demonstrate their thesis by constructing relevant graphs, and tables. If you simply copy tables and graphs from other sources this will cost you. Students can use the Library to gather information on their bibliography and for the collection of their data. A few useful sources of international data are found in the following publications which can be often available free in the Web pages of few US and international organizations.
1) Balance of payment Statistics Yearbook, IMF
2l Direction of Trade Statistics Yearbook, IMF
3) Government Finance Statistics Yearbook, IMF
4l International Financial Statistics (IFS) Yearbook, IMF (both annual and monthly volumes)
5) World Bank Development Indicators, The World Bank
6) OECD Economic Outlook, OECD
7) The Eurostat, EU
8) The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED database)
9) The US Department of Commerce
10) The Bureau of Labor Statistics and so forth.
