Trade and Industrial Policies (TIPs)

Cross-border trade, tariffs, migration, and industrial policy affect the profitability of firms and purchasing power of households. News about them affect exchange rates and other asset prices. This course develops a series of conceptual frameworks to help the students better understand the complex effects of trade, industrial, and immigration policies on business, employment, investment, and the economy. We examine the rationales behind various policy ideas and analyze the practical implementations of such policies in both advanced economies and developing countries. An important feature of the course is a discussion of contemporary news and real-world events at the beginning of each session. We will show how our understanding of the news can be enhanced by our frameworks. By the end of this course, the students will become better informed and more sophisticated consumers of business and economic news, with tools to translate them into possible business or investment actions.