Advanced International Trade: Theory and Empirics (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

Advanced International Trade is designed to teach the students about theory and empirics in International trade. The course concept combines actors of trade such as countries, products, firms, and people with factors of trade such as labor and capital. Our course starts with country- and factor-focused models such as the Ricardian framework and the Heckscher-Ohlin models, then progresses with more product-focused approaches like, e.g., the gravity model, to culminate in firm-focused models like those from Krugman and Melitz. Theoretical teaching goes hand in hand with empirical application in the scientific literature.

The course consists of a lecture and a tutorial. While the lecture is taught by Prof Nikolaus Wolf, I taught the tutorial in the summer semesters 2022 and 2023. I organized the tutorial partially as a lecture and partially as a seminar. The inputs in my lectures gave the students essential skills (scientific presenting, essay writing, reproducibility of research) and more insights into Ricardo and Heckscher-Ohlin in higher dimensions, as well as gravity models and firm-focused trade models (e.g., Melitz). In the seminar part, the students were actively involved in the learning process. They had to present a current research article that we allocated to them, which included the empirical application of models. We deliberately choose articles that use empirical examples from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries to discuss long-run changes in trade patterns. To be up to date with current events, policy discussions, and research in trade research, we incorporated the debate to stop energy imports from Russia in 2022. Then, we discussed in 2023 the actual effects of the wide-ranging import stop, especially gas and oil.

Curriculum

• Ricardo (+ higher dimensions)
• Heckscher-Ohlin (+ higher dimensions)
• Gravity Model
• Trade in intermediate inputs and wages
• Imperfect Competition
• Heterogenuous Firms
• The Margins of Trade
• Gains From Trade
• Trade Policy
• Infant Industry Protection
• Specialization Dynamics
• Multinationals and Trade
• Trade, Inequality, and Voting Behaviour
• Energy Import Stop and expected growth vs. realized growth