This course is intended as an overview of the theory of international monetary relations, which economists often call international finance or international macroeconomics.  It is essential that you have passed your principles courses (ECON 102 and 103), and have a working knowledge of algebra and geometry, for we will learn many of the tools of the economist.  Topics covered will include foreign exchange markets and why the Dollar rises and falls, balance of payments accounting and the causes of trade deficits, capital mobility, government fiscal and monetary policies, exchange rate regimes and how they sometimes change how economies behave, models of international macroeconomic cooperation and integration, the role of international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, and international macroeconomic crises such as currency collapses.

This course counts as an international business major course.  This course builds upon material taught in ECON 462/662 (International Trade), but because the material differs substantially that course is recommended but not a prerequisite.  By focusing on the overall economic effects of exchange rate regimes and government policy, this course differs substantially from FIN 308 (International Financial Management) which primarily considers the perspective of the firm.  ECON 303 (Intermediate Macroeconomics) and ECON 304 (Money and Banking) also provide excellent preparation for this course, but neither are required.

The required textbook is: International Macroeconomics (2008), by Robert C. Feenstra & Alan M. Taylor (paper, ISBN 1-4292-0691-8, Worth Publishers), estimated U.S. Price: $98.  It has a free companion website. There is also hardcover book which combines this text with Feenstra & Taylor's International Trade, which I will use in ECON 462/662 in the fall (so if you plan to take both, this would be a better option).  This book is International Economics (2008), by Feenstra & Taylor (ISBN 0-7167-9283-4), estimated U.S. Price: $145.  There is also an E-Book version for online access, which you can get through the publisher (estimated price: $62). The Feenstra & Taylor book is available at the ASUN Bookstore in the Crowley Student Union, or you can order it online through companies like Amazon.com, Varsitybooks.com, or ecampus.com.  Bigwords.com provides price comparisons.  Ordering online sometimes avoids sales tax, but you usually pay shipping & handling costs, delivery times are not always prompt, and returns may be problematic.    Alan Deardorff, who teaches international economics at the University of Michigan, maintains an online glossary of terms in international economics.

Grading:

• Weekly group homework (totaling 25%), with peer evaluations;
• Quizzes (best three out of four in-class quizzes, totaling 15%);
• Country Studies (two short papers, totaling 10%);
• Midterm examination (25%) - scheduled for Thursday, March 10; and
• Final examination (25%) - Tuesday, May 10, from 4:30-6:30 PM.

Group Homework will be assigned weekly, and be done in groups of three or four persons.  You will turn in one homework per group, and grade the contribution of your classmates to the group. Individual country studies will be assigned with the group homework, but must be turned in individually.  Four quizzes will be announced in advance, and are intended to check your understanding of the basic models. Exams will be generally problem-oriented, and based on the textbook, homework and lectures.  You must pass the final exam to pass the course. The final examination will be given at the time listed in the Spring Schedule, and university policy forbids early exams. In fact, if your other instructors give early exams they can earn the ire of the dean and the provost.  Makeups will be given only under very unusual circumstances.

Good participation and attendance will help your grade if you are on the margin; I expect that you will not arrive late or leave early without explanation, and I expect you to keep up with the assigned readings and contribute to class discussion.

To receive graduate credit for this course, significant additional work is required. Graduate students must do additional problems on the exams, do the homework, and also write a research paper.  The group homework will count for 25% of the grade, the midterm will count for 25% of the grade, the final will count for 25%, and the research paper will count for 25%. Quizzes will not be graded, though graduate students may take them for feedback. Any deviation to these weights must be negotiated with the professor by the beginning of the second week.

See the graduate student requirements, with details on research paper requirements.  

Spring 2010:  Quiz 1 (with key), Quiz 2 (with key), Midterm Exam (key), Quiz 3 (with key), Quiz 4 (with key), and Final Exam (key)
Spring 2009:  Quiz 1 (key),  Quiz 2 (with key), Midterm Exam (key),  Quiz 3 (with key),  Quiz 4 (with key), and Final Exam (key).
Spring 2008:  Quiz 1 (with key and scale),  Quiz 2 (with key),  Midterm Exam (key),  Quiz 3 (key),  Quiz 4 (with key), and Final Exam (key).
Spring 2007:  Quiz 1 (key), Quiz 2 (with key), Quiz 3 (key), Quiz 4 (key), Midterm Exam (key), and Final Exam (key + correction).
Spring 2006:  Midterm (key), Final Exam, Quiz 1, Quiz 2, Quiz 3, Quiz 4, and Quiz 5.
Spring 2005:  Midterm (key), Final Exam, Quiz 1, Quiz 2, and Quiz 3.

Cheating:

Any cheating will be severely punished, ranging from failing the exam or assignment at a minimum to failing the course and even expulsion from the university, in egregious cases or in cases where there is evidence of any prior offenses.  Students who are caught cheating also lose their chance at college scholarships.  Cheating includes both copying someone else's work as well as letting your work be copied, bringing in notes, text messaging or taking pictures of the exam, plagiarizing other people's words or ideas and passing them off as your own, et cetera.  I am serious as a heart attack about this.

These maximum recommendations work both ways.  For example, a student working 10 hours per week should not take more than 15 credits and conversely, a student who is taking 15 credits should not work more than 10 hours per week.  Of course, many of you will choose to exceed these maxima, but you should know that unless you have superpowers or take extremely easy courses, you are setting yourself up for lower grades, inadequate sleep, or other trouble.  If you do not have scholarships or other means of support, then you might consider taking fewer credits per semester and an extra year or two to graduate.

Any student who qualifies with a disability is to provide his or her instructor with a letter from the Disability Resource Center stating the appropriate accommodations for this course. If you have a documented disability and wish to discuss how these academic accommodations will be implemented for this course, please contact the instructor during the first two weeks of class.

Group Homework Schedule Homework Set Assignment Due Date  1 Feenstra & Taylor, chapter 1 (chapter 12 in the hardback), problems 1-6. Plus supplemental problem. Thursday, Jan. 27 2 Maple Exchange Rate Model Problem Set; Plus supplemental problems on the standard trade model. Tuesday, Feb. 8 3 F&T, ch. 2 (13), problems 1-8; Plus supplemental problem on foreign exchange derivatives. Tuesday, Feb. 15 Quiz 1 (key) Thursday, Feb. 17 Tuesday, Feb. 22 4 F&T, ch. 3 (14), problems 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9. Tuesday, Feb. 22 Thursday, Feb. 24 Quiz 2 (key) Thursday, Feb. 24 Tuesday, Mar. 1 5 F&T, ch. 4 (15), problems 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8. Tuesday, Mar. 1 Thursday, Mar. 3 Country Study Choice Due (with data references) Thursday, Mar. 3 6 F&T, ch. 5 (16), problems 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9. Tuesday, Mar. 8 MIDTERM EXAM (key) Thursday, Mar. 10 -- SPRING BREAK -- March 14-18 7 F&T, ch. 6 (17), problems 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 12; Plus supplemental problems on intertemporal trade and risk. Tuesday, Mar. 29 Country Study 1 Due Thursday, Mar. 31 8 F&T, ch. 7 (18), problems 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 10; Plus Maple ISLM Model Problem Set. Tuesday, Apr. 5 9 F&T, ch. 8 (19), problems 1, 2, 5, 6, 7; Plus Maple ISLM-FX Model Problem Set 1. Tuesday, Apr. 12 Quiz 3 (key) Thursday, Apr. 14 10 F&T, ch. 9 (20), problems 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11; Plus Maple ISLM-FX Model Problem Set 2. Tuesday, Apr. 19 Quiz 4 (key) Thursday, Apr. 21 11 F&T, ch. 10 (21), problems 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8; Plus Maple ISLM-FX Model Problem Set 3 (the Home-Foreign Model). Tuesday, Apr. 26 Country Study 2 Due Free Quiz (optional - to replace lowest quiz grade) (key) Thursday, Apr. 28 12 F&T, ch. 11 (22), problems 1, 5, 6, 8. Tuesday, May 3 Prep Day Q & A Session -- Room changed to AB 107 Wednesday, May 5, 5:00-6:45 PM FINAL EXAM  (key) Tuesday, May 10, 4:30-6:30 PM

Homework is done in groups of 3-4 students, and each group turns in one complete set.  Though work may be divided up, your group is expected to discuss the entire homework together, and you are all responsible for your joint answers.  It is unacceptable to not meet at once per homework assignment, or to assemble the homework in a mad scramble at the start of class.  It is also foolish, because if you don't understand the homework you will find the exams to be impossible.

Your group's homework is due at the start of the class period on the due date, and late homework will be penalized.  Each chapter will receive a separate grade, but it can be turned in together.  The homework assignment is expected to be in order, complete, and legible, otherwise your grade will be marked down.  It will usually take me a week to return the graded homework.

On the day your homework set is turned in, you must turn in a confidential evaluation of your group members rating them for their contribution to all chapters assigned in the set.  "Confidential" means that you can't show it to your group members and you can't discuss it with them.  On a piece of paper or an e-mail, put your name first so I know whose evaluation it is, then list the other members of your group.  For a three-person group, give yourself no more than 34% (you may give yourself less), and then divide the other 66% between the other two members.  For a four-person group, give yourself no more than 25% (you may give yourself less), and then divide the other 75% between the other three members. Round to the nearest percentage (no fractions, please), and make sure that the total adds up to 100%, or I may send it back to you and treat it as a missing evaluation.  For example:
 

Turn your evaluation in on this paper form, folded over.  If you can't make it to class, you may send me an email at elliottp@unr.edu.  (Be sure not to send it to the class email list!)  I will then sum up the scores to determine your overall evaluation, and your individual grade is the group's grade for each chapter times your overall evaluation for the set.  I will report your group grade and each student's overall evaluation score when I return your homework, but not how each student evaluated you.  It is not acceptable for students to discuss evaluations in advance, or to try to uncover the evalution given by any individual group member.

It is important that you turn this in, and you need to identify yourself on it.  If I cannot determine who turned in the evaluation, I will treat it like a missing evaluation.  If your evaluation for your group is not turned in to me before I grade the homework, I will assign you 10% and divide the other 90% equally among your partners, and you will be unpleasantly surprised when you get your grades back.  For example:
 

There are two exceptions:  1) if all but one member of a group turn in evaluations, and they are all consistent, then I will approximate the missing evaluation; 2) if a student drops the course, then I will divide his or her points among the other group members only for homework in which they were depending on him or her.  Then I will reduce the group size and/or readjust the groups.

If your group is not satisfied with the results of an evaluation (perhaps because some evaluations were not turned in), then you may be re-evaluated.  In order to ensure that such a re-evaluation is a Pareto Improvement, all members of your group must re-submit their evaluations to me in individual e-mails.  Once I receive e-mails from all members, I will then notify your group by e-mail if the evaluation has changed.

I reserve the right to adjust groups and their evaluations as I see fit.  If I can correct small errors, I will.  

The Federation of International Trade Associations (FITA) has a lot of country information on their website, along with a new site for finding jobs in international business.

Want to know exchange rates?  Check out this currency converter by OANDA, Inc.

International agencies you might check out include the World Trade Organization Homepage, the United Nations, the Bank for International Settlements, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the World Bank.  There is also a site with links to foreign embassies.

United States government agencies with good international data include US Customs, the U.S. Trade Representative, the Department of Commerce (see the Bureau of the Census, the International Trade Administration, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics), the International Trade Commission., and the Central Intelligence Agency Factbook (the homepage of the CIA itself is, as you might guess, a secure site.)  See also the FedWorld Federal Internet Resource Locator.

Information on international treaties and regulations and be found at:

• Tufts University's Reference Material on Trade and Commercial Relations: Treaties and Conventions
• Carnet Information from the US Council for International Business
• Code of Federal Regulations

Good international information may be also found at the Financial Times website, the website for The Economist, the International Center for Economic Growth, et cetera.  

Search the UNR Library for books or journals.  They also have a long list of databases for article citations, abstracts, and statistical information, including a good index of economic journals, especially Econlit from the Journal of Economic Literature, and a lot of other good reference information.  Many economics journals now have websites (the library has a different list of online business/economic journals), and you can find an article, read its abstract, and order it if you want the whole thing through interlibrary loan.

If you find any errors or know of any other good international websites, email me!