Global economics

BCO221 GLOBAL ECONOMICS Task brief & rubrics

Midterm Task Brief

Description:

· This is an individual task.

· It contains a numerical exercice and four essay-form questions (one of them is based on a reading). Each question is independent from the rest of questions.

· Weight: This task is worth 40% of your overall grade for this subject.

Formalities:

· The minimum amount of words to be used is 2000 and the maximm is 2500

· You may want to include graphics to make your reasoning and argumention more visual and explicative

· Font: Arial. Size: 12,5pts. Line spacing: 1,5. Text align: Justified.

· The in-text References and the Bibliography have to be in Harvard’s citation style.

Questions:

1. (20%) What does most favoured nation (MFN) mean?

2. (20%) Use the information in the table below to answer the following questions.

Production per unit of Labour:
	US	France
Clothing	250	500
Autos	100	300

(a) Does either country have an absolute advantage in the production of clothing or autos? Explain.

(b) What is the opportunity cost of autos in each country?

(c) What is the opportunity cost of clothing in each country?

(d) Analyze comparative advantage and opportunities for trade between the U.S. and France.

(e) Analyze the production and consumption gains from trade.

3. (20%) Describe the product life cycle theory and explain the impact of the product life cycle on international trade and international investment.

4. (20%) Should we worry if foreigners sell us goods cheaply? Explain the main arguments for governments to protect domestic industry.

5. (20%) Read the following text and answer the questions below

“The golden age of globalisation, in 1990-2010, was something to behold. Commerce soared as the cost of shifting goods in ships and planes fell, phone calls got cheaper, tariffs were cut and the financial system liberalised. International activity went gangbusters, as firms set up around the world, investors roamed and consumers shopped in supermarkets with enough choice to impress Phileas Fogg.

Globalisation has slowed from light speed to a snail’s pace in the past decade for several reasons. The cost of moving goods has stopped falling. Multinational firms have found that global sprawl burns money and that local rivals often eat them alive. Activity is shifting towards services, which are harder to sell across borders: scissors can be exported in 20ft-containers, hair stylists cannot. And Chinese manufacturing has become more self-reliant, so needs to import fewer parts.”

From the article "Slowbalisation". The Economist, Jan 24th 2019.

a) Describe the main features and drivers of globalization during the “golden age” mentioned in the text.

b) The article describes, in the second paragraph, a new phenomenon called “slowbalization”. Explain what slowbalization is and when it started.

This task assesses the following learning outcomes:

· develop a complex understanding of the main concepts of international economics and how to apply them;

· understand and analyze the different global economic theories;

· distinguish between the different international economic systems;

· understand balance of payments and its influencers;

· explore economic integration in different economic areas

Rubrics

	Exceptional 90-100	Good 80-89	Fair 70-79	Marginal fail 60-69
Knowledge & Understanding (35%)	Student demonstrates excellent understanding of key concepts and uses vocabulary in an entirely appropriate manner.	Student demonstrates good understanding of the task and mentions some relevant concepts and demonstrates use of the relevant vocabulary.	Student understands the task and provides minimum theory and/or some use of vocabulary.	Student understands the task and attempts to answer the question but does not mention key concepts or uses minimum amount of relevant vocabulary.
Application (35%)	Student applies fully relevant knowledge from the topics delivered in class.	Student applies mostly relevant knowledge from the topics delivered in class.	Student applies some relevant knowledge from the topics delivered in class. Misunderstanding may be evident.	Student applies little relevant knowledge from the topics delivered in class. Misunderstands are evident.
Evaluation & Critical Thinking 20%	Student assembles a coherent response to the question, providing a range of support and justification that leads to a well-reasoned conclusion	Student assembles a good response to the question, providing support and justification that lead to a well-reasoned conclusion	Student assembles a fair response to the question, providing some support and justification that lead to a well-reasoned conclusion. Minor misunderstandings may be evident	Student’s response to the question lacks coherence. Limited support and justification are provided that may or may not be well linked to the conclusion
Communication (10%)	Student communicates their ideas extremely clearly and concisely, respecting word count, grammar and spellcheck	Student communicates their ideas clearly and concisely, respecting word count, grammar and spellcheck	Student communicates their ideas with some clarity and concision. It may be slightly over or under the wordcount limit. Some misspelling errors may be evident.	Student communicates their ideas in a somewhat unclear and unconcise way. Does not reach or does exceed wordcount excessively and misspelling errors are evident.