Globalization has been a defining force driving markets and has been fundamental in shaping politics over the past 50 years. Concerns about the optimal level of trade between countries, the deepening of supply chains and the investments that support them, the dangers of unregulated financial flows, and the question of economic migration are all tied to the expansion and integration of markets across the globe. As economies become more intertwined, so does the impacts of market forces and policy decisions. In this class, we will work through the building blocks of understanding these impacts by identifying who wins and loses from policy decisions impacting local, national, and international markets. Students will learn how to approach questions using a political economy framework, to evaluate generalized explanations and propositions with empirical evidence, and to become familiar with the major tensions and perspectives at work in the political of the modern global economy.
- Students will effectively analyze the complexity of human behavior, and how historical, economic, political, social or geographic relationships develop, persist or change.
- Understand the broad facets of important components of the global economy, such as trade, investment, finance, and migration
- Apply political economic models to explain contemporary policy debates
- Create an argument for or against a policy using different logics of political economy
- Analyze policy outcomes with regard to their distributional consequences
There are no required textbooks for this course. All readings referenced in the schedule will be available through the course website.
Your final grade will be assigned as a letter grade according to the following scale:
A 90-100%
B 80-89.99%
C 70-79.99%
D 60-69.99%
F 0-59.99%
The weights of the assignments are built into their point totals. This means that to calculate your grade you can simply add up the points you earned on the assignment and divide by the total potential points up to that point in the semester.
Successful students will regularly ask questions and engage with the course material. It should be noted that engaging with the course material is not equivalent to merely attending lecture. Students can participate by attending office hours, asking questions during lecture, contributing in class activities, discussing material with the instructor, emailing questions about the class, or contributing to discussion boards on the course website.
Students are expected to maintain the highest standards of academic integrity. All work submitted must be original and properly cited. Plagiarism, cheating, or any form of academic dishonesty will result in immediate consequences as outlined in the university's academic integrity policy.
This is a Core IMPACTS course that is part of the Social Sciences area.
Core IMPACTS refers to the core curriculum, which provides students with essential knowledge in foundational academic areas. This course will help students master course content, and support students’ broad academic and career goals.
This course should direct students toward a broad Orienting Question:
- How do I understand human experiences and connections?
Completion of this course should enable students to meet the following Learning Outcome:
- Students will effectively analyze the complexity of human behavior, and how historical, economic, political, social, or geographic relationships develop, persist, or change.
Course content, activities, and exercises in this course should help students develop the following Career-Ready Competencies:
- Intercultural Competence
- Perspective-Taking
- Persuasion