Cameron Hall 240-I
University of North Carolina Wilmington
601 South College Road  --  Wilmington, NC 28403

Prof. Dr. Peter Schmidt
Economics & Statistics
 Summerterm II 2015

910-962-2113
room 220-A

20 July 2015

International Business INB 300

Reading:
- Main text: Charles L.W. Hill: “International Business:Competing in the Global Marketplace”
+ some online-material from the 9th edition.

Sources for the current (10th) edition (GLOBAL EDITION):
Paperback book at http://www.amazon.com/International-Business-Charles-W-Hill/dp/0077163583, (Paperback used--$55, Paperback new--$76)
or: Kindle version: http://www.amazon.com/International-Business-Charles-W-L-Hill-ebook/dp/B00L4APGWM/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=, Kindle access--$81.78
"Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle Reading App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required"

+ additional: Gregory Mankiws "Ten Principles of Economics" (chapter 1)

The assessment is a learning portfolio that will be presented in class
All tests are closed book exams, no material is permitted --> mobile phones are strictly forbidden!!

Schedule (preliminary - changes may occur and will be announced in class and in the following table) - Syllabus
Time: MTWR 10:15 am-12:20 pm --- Room: CH 212

In this module, we use the AULIS, the E-Learning-Platform of the Hochschule Bremen. We are going to use this group for our internal communication and the uploads of the students.

  

No
Day
Book Chapter
Topics
Further material
1
Mon 22 June
(Mankiw chap. 1)

Introduction and “10 Principles of Economics
- Basic Questions: Why Economics?
  -> Basic Concepts of Economics

2
Tue 23 June
(Mankiw chap. 1)
Introduction: Basic problems; economic systems

Hierarchy of goals in market economies
- See also the quotations of T. Friedman below

- The production process 
- Functions of Competition

3
Wed 24 June

 

 

 

Teams' Presentation about Mankiws "Ten Principles of Economics"

 

 

Video about economic approaches: "60 Second Adventures in Economics"

Some Videos "Fight of the Century" / Fear the boom and the bust
- "Fear the Boom and Bust" a Hayek vs. Keynes Rap Anthem
- Fight of the Century: Keynes vs. Hayek Round Two
and more information like "The Tale of the Dueling Economists".
Texts of the video

4
Thu 25 June Chap. 1 Globalization Warm-up questions ;-)
-> Socrative, waiting for the teacher
5
Mon 29 June

Chap. 1
Chap. 2

Globalization
National Differences in Political Economy

- "Wall Street" (1987) @ Wikipedia; "Greed is good" speech on Youtube
- Milton Friedman - Greed

6
Tue 30 June

Chap. 2

National Differences in Political Economy

 + Teams present "their" country -> poster + presentation (~5 min, see table below)
7
Wed 1 July Chap. 3 Political Economy and Economic Development

See sources below, esp.: the GapMinder
- http://www.gapminder.org/ignorance

- Rosling@Zeitgeist (2007)

8
Thu 2 July Chap. 3 Political Economy and Economic Development - Hofstede Center: Strategy - Culture - Change
- details about the group presentations (as described in the Syllabus)
9
Mon 6 July Chap. 4
Differences in Culture
 
10
Tue 7 July Chap. 4
Differences in Culture

 + team-presentations about Hofstede-dimensions for "your" country, see table below

- Balance of Payments (BoP), Current account balance - comparison table at the World Bank,
- BEA: International Economic Accounts with U.S. International Transactions Tables, International Trade and Investment Country Facts

11
Wed 8 July (chap 5) (We are only briefly going to discuss parts of c.5: Ethics in International Business - slides 1-7, 14, 18, 26-29, 31-32)

Warm-up questions ;-)
-> Socrative, waiting for the teacher

- WTO ++ Wiki (history, functions, map, ...) ++ Member Countries

12
Thu 9 July
Test 1 (midterm)

- Test 1 with 80 MC questions
topics: Introduction, basic problems, hierarchy of goals ... 10 principles, Hill chapters 1-4 and the parts of chap. 5 that we discussed.

 Please check the online resources, tests and case studies / maps on the book webpage: online-material from the 9th edition  
13
Mon 13 July Chap. 6 Presentation Team 1
International Trade Theory
 
14
Tue 14 July  
Chap. 6
Chap. 7
Presentation Team 2
International Trade Theory
The Political Economy of International Trade
 
15
Wed 15 July Chap. 7 Presentation Team 3
The Political Economy of International Trade
 
16
Thu 16 July Chap. 8 Presentation Team 4 + Presentation Team 5
Foreign Direct Investment
 
17
Mon 20 July

 

Chap. 9

Evaluation: IDEA @ uncw.campuslabs.com/courseeval

Regional Economic Integration

Warm-up questions chapter 6      -> Socrative, waiting for the teacher
+ 5 new words (for the four language) -> Yes / no + Resume / c.v. + Bathroom + Computer + Cell phone + "bless you"

EU: European Central Bank ECB:
+ Map of Euro area
+ FACTS presentations
+ Video: The History of the EU, EMU and the European Central Bank
+ Video: Integration of market infrastructure
+ leitzinsen.info
(further links: Educational Sources: videos and presentations (definitions of monetary aggregates + MFI information + Inflation Monitor + overview presentation) )

18
Tue 21 July

Chap. 9

 

Chap. 11
 

Regional Economic Integration (continued)
    + country presentation of Spain (in the EU)

Summary and YOUR QUESTIONS !!!

The International Monetary System

Feedback

Study Abroad!
An invitation to the World, esp. (Hochschule) Bremen ;-)

at UNCW/Cameron see http://csb.uncw.edu/global/index.htm and/or talk to Dr. Thomas Porter   ---    for the summer program in Bremen, please talk to Dr. Christopher Dumas (Professor of Economics) or Dr. Tom Janicki (Professor of Management Information Systems Information Systems / Operations Management)

19
Wed 22 July  

Reading / Study day (no class)

20
Thu 23 July  Test 2 (Final) Final Test with ~80 MC questions .
topics: Hill chapters 6, 7, 8, 9 and parts of 11
+ Case studies of the teams (topics + important content of ppt (=no details, no numbers)
Please check the online resources, tests and case studies / maps on the book webpage: online-material from the 9th edition  

 

TEAMwork: (most of the teamwork will be assigned homework but some might take place in class).

           Team:
Date:
(All students)
A - Australia
B - Brazil
C - China
D - Denmark
E - Egypt
NAMES of
team members: Deanna Cross
Stephen Palmer
Rachel Urban
Alexandria Bradberry
Clayton Dawson
Gabrielle Husted
Phillip Dawson
Trevor Hendrix
Zachary Merritt

Brandon Best
Natalie Wilkinson
Randy Hayes

Michael Occhineri
Matthew Peterman
Vincent Troutner
Mon 22 June

no tasks, Mankiws "Principles" in class:

1-2
3-4
5-6
7-8
9-10
Tue 23 June

Mankiw: "Problems and Applications"
ALL-> Nr. 17 ONE exampe !

ONE example for 17
ONE example for 17
ONE example for 17
ONE example for 17
ONE example for 17
Wed 24 June

Mankiw: "Problems and Applications"
------->

12,14
10,13
6,8
4,5
1,3
Tue 30 June Teams present "their" country -> poster + presentation ~5 min)
Australia
Brazil
China
Denmark
Egypt
Tue 7 July

Teams present the difference in cultural dimension of "their" country (A,B,C,D,E) to the U.S.using the cultural dimensions and the country comparison to the U.S. by Hofstede: Strategy - Culture - Change
(ppt
presentation 1-3 slides ~5 min)

Australia <> U.S.
Brazil <> U.S.
China <> U.S.
Denmark <> U.S.
Egypt <> U.S.
Wed 15 July

prepare Excel sheets with the conversion of:

All together we'll work on the conversion from mpg to l/100 km (mobile.de)

• Body Hight Miles - km Body weight • Temperature (Celsius to Fahrenheit) (other topic – price per unit of gasoline in Germany vs. US – including the (different) taxes

 

Data Sources:

International and Global Economics:

Further links:

  •  "The Production Process"
  • WIKIPEDIA, the free Encyclopedia
  • Leo - Online Dictionary
  • Mathematical (and statistical) Vocabulary
      
  • Quotations form the book of Thomas Friedman: "The World is flat":
    - For some, particularly among the older generations, this was an unwelcome transformation. Communism was a great system for making everyone equally poor. In fact, there was no better system in the world for that than Communism. Capitalism made people unequally rich, and for some who were used to the plodding, limited, but secure Socialist lifestyle--where a job, a house, an education, and a pension were all guaranteed, even if they were meager--the fall of the Berlin wall was deeply unsettling. (p. 51/52)
    - ... to some degree Mikhail Gorbachev's hapless efforts to reform something that was unreformable brought communism to an end. But if I had to point to one factor as first among equals, it was the information revolution that began in the early- to mid-1980s. Totalitarian systems depend on a monopoly of information and force, and too much information started to slip through the Iron Curtain, thanks to the spread of fax machines, telephones, and other modern tools of communication. (p 54)

Bremen University of Applied Sciences
Department of Business Studies (SIB)
Economics & Statistics