ECON 362
Global Competitive Strategies Spring 2020
Division II
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Class Details

Econ 362 acknowledges both the importance of large, diversified multinational firms in global economic activity, and the forms of strategic thinking that often displace, in practice, the optimization models of traditional economic analysis. In this course, we seek to describe competition in global markets by developing competence in decoding and critiquing (and even formulating) varieties of business and corporate strategies employed during the past forty years. While we treat a variety of theoretical models that seek or have sought to explain patterns of international economic activity, our priority is to ascertain their descriptive integrity and usefulness today. Our historical interest begins with mercantilism and covers Smith, comparative advantage, varieties of factor endowment theories, and much more, proceeding to strategic management perspectives and contributions of the 20th and early 21st century. We complete these efforts with a few original attempts to reconcile modern growth theory (e.g., Romer) with modern strategic practice (e.g., Porter). Further, substantial recent shifts in the nature of globalized economic activity, including the changing relative mobility and power of capital and labor, are examined. While the course is largely descriptive, it cannot fail to treat a few normative issues. We treat the efficacy of various government policies in promoting the competitiveness of home-based industries in regional and global markets. Finally, welfare propositions and policy ideas for addressing welfare impacts in a descriptively accurate context are advanced.
The Class: Format: lecture; mix of lecture, discussion, and case analyses
Limit: 25
Expected: 25
Class#: 3156
Grading: yes pass/fail option, no fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: written cases (in teams), class participation, a mid-term exam, and a final paper (can be co-authored) or exam are expected
Prerequisites: ECON 251
Enrollment Preferences: senior Economics majors
Distributions: Division II
Attributes: GBST Economic Development Studies

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