Special Topics in International Trade

The lecturers are Giuseppe Celi from UB in Bari (IT) and Claire Naiditch from Université Lille in Lille (FR).

Giuseppe Celi teaches topics 1 & 2 and Claire Naiditch topic 3.

Students are supposed to have knowledge of Microeconomics and International Trade Theory at an intermediate level.

Topic 1 – The international fragmentation of production: Offshoring/outsourcing (5 hours)

• The economics of fragmentation: Causes and consequences
• Trade in tasks

Topic 2 – Globalization and labour markets (5 hours)

• The impact of international trade on skill composition of employment
• The impact of globalization on income distribution

Topic 3 – Economics of international migration (10 hours)

• Stylized facts about international migration
• The European migratory policy in historical perspective
• The socio-economic determinants of international migration: theory and empirics
• The economic impacts of migration in the host country
• The economic impacts of migration in the origin country

The course provides an in-depth analysis of selected topics related to trade and international factor mobility.

The following topics are included:

• The international fragmentation of production (offshoring/outsourcing)
• Globalization and labour markets
• Economics of international migration

Topic 1:

• R. Baldwin (2013), Supply-Chain Trade: A Portrait of Global Pattern and Several Testable Hypotheses, NBER Working Paper no. 18957
• R. Baldwin (2011), Trade and Industrialisation after Globalisation’s 2nd Unbundling: How Building and Joining a Supply Chain are Different and Why it Matters, NBER Working Paper no. 17716
• R. Baldwin (2006), Globalisation: the great unbundling(s), Economic Council of Finland, September
• J. Bhagwati, A. Panagariya & T.N. Srinivasan (2004), The Muddles over Outsourcing, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 18:4, 93-114
• A.S. Blinder (2006), Offshoring: The Next Industrial Revolution?, Foreign Affairs, 85:2, 113-128
• D.K. Elms & P. Low (2013), Global Value Chains in a Changing World, WTO
• R.C. Feenstra (1998), Integration of Trade and Disintegration of Production in the Global Economy, Journal of Economic Perspectives 12, no. 4, 31-50
• R. Feenstra, & G. Hanson (1996), Foreign investment, outsourcing and relative wages, In J.N. Bhagwati, G.M. Grossman, D.A. Irwin, R.C. Feenstra, The Political Economy of Trade Policy: Essays in Honor of Jagdish Bhagwati, Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press
• F. Levy, & K. Yu (2006), Offshoring Radiology Services to India, Manuscript
• P. Samuelson (2004), Where Ricardo and Mill Rebut and Confirm Arguments of Mainstream Economists Supporting Globalization, Journal of Economic Perspectives, pp. 135-146, 18(3)
• Lecture notes

Topic 2:

• M. Bacchetta & M. Jansen (2011), Making Globalization Socially Sustainable, ILO and WTO
• R.A. Freeman (1995), Are Your Wages Set in Beijing?, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 9 (3)
• D. Greenaway & D. Nelson (2001), Globalisation and Labour Markets: A Review of the Literatur, In Globalisation and Labour Markets, Vols. I and II, Edited by D. Greenaway D. Nelson & E. Elgar
• ILO (2013), Global Wage Report 2012-2013: Wages and Equitable Growth, Geneve
• M. Jansen (2011), Trade and Employment: From Myths to Facts, ILO and EC
• J. Jung & J. Mercenier (2014), Routinization-biased Technical Change and Globalization: Understanding Labour Market Polarization, Economic Enquiry, 52(4), 1446-1465
• P. Krugman & R. Lawrence (1994), Trade, jobs and wages, Scientific American 270, 4, April, 44-49
• P. Krugman (1995), Growing World Trade: Causes and Consequences, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 1: 1995, 327-377
• R. Lawrence & M. Slaughter (1993), Trade and U.S. Wages: Great Sucking Sound or Small Hiccup?, Brookings Papers in Economic Activity, Microeconomics, 2, 161-226
• J. Sachs & H. Shatz (1994), Trade and jJbs in U.S. Manufacturing, Brookings Papers in Economic Activity, Volume 1, 11-84
• M.J. Slaughter (1999), Globalization and Wages: A Tale of Two Perspectives, World Economy, 22: 609-630
• A. Wood (1994), North-South Trade, Employment and Inequality: Changing Fortunes in a Skill-Driven World, Oxford University Press
• A. Wood (1995), How Trade Hurt Unskilled Workers, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 9(3)
• Lecture notes

Topic 3:

• R. Baldwin & C. Wyplosz (2012), The Economics of European Integration, 4th Edition, McGraw-Hill
• C. Boswell (2003), European Migration Policies in Flux, John Wiley and Sons Ltd
• N. Diez Guardia & K. Pichelman (2006), Labour Migration Patterns in Europe: Recent Trends, Future Challenges, Economic Papers, 256, European Commission
• European Commission, Home Affairs (http://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/policies/immigration/immigration_intro_en.htm)
• A. Kicinger & K. Saczuk (2004), Migration Policy in the European Perspective: Development and Future Trends, CEFMR Working Paper, 1/2004
• OECD (2012), Mobility and Migration in Europe, In OECD Economic Surveys: European Union 2012, OECD Publishing (http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/eco_surveys-eur-2012-5-en)
• Ç. Özden, C.R. Parsons, M. Schiff & T.L. Walmsley (2011), Where on Earth is Everybody? The Evolution of Global Bilateral Migration 1960–2000, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 5709

Upon successful completion of the course, students should be able:

• To evaluate the processes of international relocation of production and their implications for international division of labour.
• To understand the impact of international trade on labour markets and the welfare effects of globalization.
• To assess the main determinants and the economic consequences of international migration flows for both sending and origin countries.

The course contains several lectures on different topics.

Students are evaluated during a writting exam of two hours.