International Trade. Volume I – The specialization of countries and the multilateral trading system

The book serves as textbook for university students in the bachelor and master studies of international economic relations, but also as useful study material for PhD students and researchers. References allow readers to access different angles of studying international economics, various analytical assumptions of analysis, as well as various schools of economic thought from a perspective that combines standard economics, of neoclassical inspiration, with unconventional economics.

 

The teaching material is supported by the use of specific concepts, suggestive explanations and ideas developed through mini-case studies, scholarly dilemmas and analytical guidance in quantitative analysis and scenarios. The content covers two major areas of study. The first part presents topics explaining specialization of countries under perfect and imperfect competition, together with investigations as to the conditions of validity of these theories in empirical studies and real-economy cases. A second part of the textbook is devoted to the application of the theoretical framework in the practice of international multilateral negotiations. Institutional aspects, principles of negotiations and the main agreements of the World Trade Organization (WTO) occupy much of this topic. Beyond WTO, the functioning of the international trading system is complemented by arguments debating multilateralism , regionalism and global governance.