Seminar International Economy : trade

Teacher(s)

Vannoorenberghe Gonzague;

Language

English

Main themes

The workshop will be devoted to the interactions between the financial markets and monetary policy. An inter-esting manner of studying these problems is to examine: (1) how a central bank like the ECB or the American federal Reserve determines the direction of its monetary policy and (2) how monetary policy influences eco-nomic activity. Accordingly, a range of issues are tackled, including: what are the variables (real, financial) which influence the direction of monetary policy, should a central bank react to extreme movements in share values or property prices, how can the direction (restrictive, expansionist) of monetary policy be evaluated at a given point in time, through which financial channels does monetary policy influence economic activity, do these channels have the same importance in different countries and has their importance increased over time, etc.

Aims

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	The main objectives of this workshop are to teach students: " To develop coherent economic argument; " Reading and summary skills; " To development arguments and written skills; " To present an argument; " To work in a group.

The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled “Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit”.

Content

This seminar will deal with a number of hotly debated European Economic Policies and their international implications. Different speakers from academia and the European Commission are invited to Louvain to come and tell about an important policy area in Europe and about their experiences of what is going on at the Commission. The list of topics and speakers changes every year. Past topics included Trade policy, Fiscal policy, Environmental Policy, Poverty and regional disparities etc.

Teaching methods

 Lecture series by a number of outside speakers on relevant EU topics followed by time for questions and group discussion

Evaluation methods

What is required for this seminar is to write a paper on one of the topics treated in the lecture series. Seminar papers have to be handed in and presented to the rest of the class at the end of term. The paper and presentation can be either in French or in English. Students are evaluated on the basis of the quality of their contributions in the discussions and on the basis of their written report. Insofar as work is completed in groups, they are required to each participate in the presentation to allow for an individual assessment.

Other information

a course in micro- and macro- economics is a good preparation for this course
./ communication between professor and students goes via the electronic platform icampus. You should enroll in the course to have access to the online documents such as course notes and slides that will be posted.

Faculty or entity

ESPO