Global Economic Environment

Economics is the "lingua franca" of business. Global Economic Environment (GEE) is a course in applied macroeconomics that is the third portion of the EMBA Core economics sequence. The goal of GEE is to develop a solid understanding of the economic factors that affect the performance and management of firms in today's global economy. While the Markets and the Economy course focused on long-term trends in the global economy, this course focuses on boom-bust cycles and fluctuations around these long-term trajectories, their impact on businesses, and the roles that are played by monetary policy, fiscal policy, and financial globalization in driving these developments. Some of the questions we examine include: What causes business cycles and what is the role of monetary and fiscal policy in shaping them? What drives exchange rates? What leads to persistent inflation and how can hyperinflation arise? What are the causes and consequences of global imbalances in trade and capital flows? To address these questions, we develop conceptual frameworks that allow us to understand the various interactions between key macroeconomic variables such as real output, economic growth, unemployment, inflation, interest rates, exchange rates, and the current account balance. Since an important objective of this course is for students to become informed and sophisticated consumers of economic news, the issues discussed in this course are continually related to current events and real-world examples.