Foreign Economic Policy

This course introduces the main concepts, mechanisms, and areas of foreign economic policy. The major goal is to equip students with the knowledge necessary for the successful management of international finances, commerce, and business both at the enterprise and the government level. Building on the foundations of economic policy and international economics, we aim to offer a practice-oriented approach that, beyond the theoretical basis, also pays special attention to the newest empirical results regarding the individual topics. After the introduction of the main goals, concepts, and schools of foreign economic policy, we discuss two crucial aspects of the international political and economic environment of national economic policies: globalisation and regional economic integrations. We investigate the tendencies of economic development in the latest century focusing on inequality both between and within countries. The course continues with the discussion of foreign trade with a special focus on its potentials in enhancing economic growth. We also investigate the main aspects of international competitiveness, the related dilemmas of measurement, and foreign direct investments.

Economics II.

This course introduces the foundations of macroeconomics. We start with the basic concepts in macroeconomics and the very notion of economic modelling, endogenous and exogenous variables. After that, we discuss the characteristics of the major macroeconomic indicators (such as the GDP, inflation, and unemployment). We deal with the theories of short-term economic fluctuations in details. We investigate the mechanisms of aggregate demand via the IS-LM models both in closed and open economies. After modelling aggregate demand, we switch to the theories of aggregate supply. We introduce the Phillips curve. We also discuss the interface of economic policy and macroeconomics. In the frame of the latter, we introduce how the different schools of economic policy relate to the toolkits of fiscal and monetary policies. We also present the advantages and disadvantages of rulebased and discretionary decision-making in economic policy. Finally, we discuss the concept of microeconomics-based macroeconomics.