IPE HWs

Give detailed answers to any 5 questions from each module. For best results use examples, numbers, facts, quotes and references to illustrate your point. Additional answers are counted as extra credit that will improve your grade.  A short question or a long question – both are asking for a long answer.
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Homework 1.    Answer any 5 questions. 

1.  Explain what is IPE and what issues it studies.

2. Compare and contrast capitalist and socialist economic systems, their main features, historical performance, major advantages and disadvantages.

3. Describe the assumptions and values of mercantilist perspective on international relations and the role of the state.  How is this school of though reflected in today’s policies?

4. Describe the assumptions and values of Liberal perspective on international relations and the role of the state.  How is this school of though reflected in today’s policies?

5.  Describe the views of Marxist school of thought.  What are the strengths and weaknesses of this school of thought? How is it relevant today?

6. Take a Nolan chart survey and explain what modern school of thought your views are closest to.  How does your preferred school of thought differ from its alternatives?

7.  Use the theory of median voter to explain why politicians tend to side with centrist views.

8. How did World Wars I & II change the roles of Britain and the United States as the largest manufacturing and creditor countries?

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Homework 2.     Answer any 5 questions. 
  1. Explain how the operation of global markets depends upon rules created by political structures.  If governments had never created the institutional framework after World War II, would world trade would have grown so rapidly?
  2. What is WTO?  What has it accomplished since WW2, and how?  What are some of the issues WTO has been dealing with lately?
  3. Define and explain how the principles of market liberalism and nondiscrimination are the core principles at the heart of WTO operations. What is meant by Most-Favored Nation (MFN) rules and when exceptions are allowed?
  4. What is hegemonic stability theory? Why does it depend upon the provision of international public goods? What historical evidence is cited to support hegemonic stability theory?Is the United States still an economic hegemon?
  5. Why do many observers believe that regional trade arrangements (RTAs) pose the single greatest challenge to the current multilateral trade system? What factors have influenced the rapid growth of RTAs?
  6. What is a regional trade agreement?  Using one of the RTAs as an example, explain why it was created and who are the main beneficiaries and losers from the arrangement.
  7. Explain the economic case for trade.
  8. Why do governments have strong incentives not to liberalize trade even when it can be demonstrated that they are worse off than they could be when they won’t?

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Homework 3.   Answer any 5 questions. 

  1. Explain the differences between the factor and sector models of trade policy preferences regarding income distributions and factor mobility.
  2. How should governments respond to the economic dislocation  caused by trade? (based on Policy Debate in chapter 3)
  3. Is Brexit a backlash against globalization? Explain different points of view.
  4. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the society-centered approach to trade politics?
  5. Explain the differences and similarities between society-centered and state-centered approaches to trade politics.
  6. Explain why and how industrial policies in high-technology industries have created so much conflict in international trade.
  7. What type of trade restrictions do nations use? Describe various type of trade barriers, with examples.
  8. Why do nations restrict trade?  Describe arguments in favor of protectionism. Which of the arguments do you find most convincing, why?
  9. Should the US government employ industrial policy to encourage the development of green technology? (based on Policy Debate in ch 5)

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Homework 4.   Answer any 5 questions. 

  1. What is structuralism? Explain the coordination problems identified by structuralist theory and the suggested remedies for government intervention.
  2. Explain the costs and benefits of the two-stage strategy of import substitution industrialization.
  3. Were developing countries correct in their assessment that their participation in the global economy under liberalized trade rules would always leave them on vastly unequal terms? Explain.
  4. Why was the East Asian export oriented strategy so successful for the countries that adopted it? What effect did it have on the decline of manufacturing labor in advanced industrial states
  5. Explain the role of World Bank/IMF structural adjustment mandates on large job losses through privatization and cut backs in government spending.
  6. Explain the success of the three pillars of China’s economic reforms in spite of the inefficient state-owned sector that still employs tens of millions of people.
  7. How have Brazil, India and China (BICs) changed the direction of the WTO and greater trade liberalization talks in recent years?

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Homework 5.     Answer any 5 questions. 

1.  What are the main economic, political and social reasons for the increase in transnational production? Give examples of MNCs.

2. Describe, explain and give examples of the differences between horizontal and vertical integration of the activities of MNCs.

3. Describe the dilemmas for host countries of inviting MNC foreign investments into their economies. Give examples of positive and negative externalities as a result of MNC activity in a host country.

4. How have state-MNC interactions changed over the last 60 years?

5. What complaints does the American public and foreigners  have about the activities of MNCs?

6. Explain the costs and benefits of Japan’s unique experience with MNC regulation. How did it differ from other East Asian governments?

7. Describe and explain conditions of the shifting balances of bargaining power between host countries and MNCs. Which side seems to be gaining power recently?

8. What is meant by the phrase “the race to the bottom” in MNC regulation? Can governments realistically hold domestic firms to higher standards of working conditions and environmental protection than MNCs? How?

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Homework 6.   Answer any 5 questions. 

1. Explain the difference between floating and pegged (fixed) exchange rate regimes.  Which one is better? Explain.

2. What are “balance of payment” devices? How are adjustments made under fixed and floating systems?

3. What is the gold standard? What role has the gold standard played in currency exchange systems since 1870?

4. What are some of the major dates and events in the history of the global financial system since WW2? Briefly mention why each is important.

5. Why was the postwar attempt to create an international monetary system that provided both exchange rate stability and domestic economic autonomy ultimately unsuccessful?

6. What are the implications of a weaker and a stronger currency for a country. Why is China’s exchange rate policy criticized by the US?

7.  What is IMF?  Comment on the roles of this organization over time, and why its activities has been criticized.

8. Discuss causes and consequences of the global financial crisis of 2008.

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Homework 7.   Answer any 5 questions. 

  1. Why do developing countries continue to draw on foreign capital in spite of its apparent political dangers? What are these dangers?
  2. Why has sub-Saharan Africa failed to attract so little private capital and subsequently had to rely more on foreign aid than other developing regions?
  3. Explain how and why the expansion of foreign aid programs in the 1960s was influenced by decolonialization and American desires to contain Soviet Communism.
  4. Why did debt service ratios rendered Latin American countries vulnerable to international economic shocks in the 1980s? Explain the rationale and consequences of structural adjustment programs on the economic crisis in Latin America.
  5. IMF assistance in the Asian financial crisis of the 1990s was conditional upon economic reform. What are the pros and cons of IMF conditionality?  What were these reforms and how did they affect Thailand and Indonesia differently?
  6. Discuss the pros and cons of China’s status as a large lender to the United States. What can the United Sates do to reduce its vulnerability?
  7. Discuss and analyze how the large debt burdens in sub-Saharan Africa were accumulated in response to internal and external dynamics.
  8. Discuss causes and consequences of one of the financial or currency crises: Asia 1997, Russia 1998,  Mexico 1994, or Argentina 2001.
  9.  Explain why the World Bank was created, what its goals are, what its activities are today and whether its actions are criticized.

 

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