International Political Economy Concentration

Coordinators:
Robert G. Williams, Economics Department
Kenneth E. Gilmore, Political Science Department

Understanding the complexities of global finance, production, and trade; describing and explaining the patterns of capital accumulation on a world scale; clarifying the connections among state-making, international markets, and world development-requires the integration of the theoretical insights of the disciplines of economics and political science. The International Political Economy concentration encourages students to explore the interplay of economics and politics in the global arena. Students will learn the contending analytical perspectives that characterize scholarship on the politics of international economic relations. Students will also become familiar with the tools of economic analysis, including how to read a balance of payments table, how to analyze a foreign exchange market, and how to evaluate the impact of international capital flows on domestic policy. The basic principles developed in introductory level courses are applied to real-world issues in the upper-level course electives.

Requirements

Students take four courses (16 credit hours): two courses from economics and two from political Science as follows:

  • Students must take both ECON 221: Macroeconomics and PSCI 330: International Political Economy at the beginning of the concentration
  • One additional economics course from among the following writing intensive courses: ECON 335/IDS 414: Comparative Economic Systems, ECON 336/IDS 433: Economic and Social Development of Latin America, or ECON 432: International Economics
  • One additional political science course from among the following: PSCI 445: Globalization and Its Discontents, IDS 415: Global Inequality.