Institute of Economic Studies
Faculty of Social Sciences
Charles University

IEPS Specialization: International Economics and Trade Policy

This guide proposes course sequences at the Institute of Economic Studies that help IEPS students to specialise in International Economicsand Trade Policy. More broadly, the topics covered in the classes represent insights of Economics into the broad area of International Political Economy (IPE).

The proposal is based on three types of classes: mandatory classes, technical classes, and trade and policy classes. Enclosed tables give a review of courses, their timing and sequencing:

Mandatory classes 

• JEM164 Public Finance and JEM163 Principles of Microeconomics – Both classes represent crucial introduction into basic concepts of microeconomics and  public finance that are necessary to understand more advanced topics in economics.
• JEM165 International Political Economy – The class offers a basic introduction to the field of IPE. It is a crucial class connecting international economic exchanges with political economy, politics and international relations.

Trade and policy classes

• JEB102 Principles of Economics II – It is an introductory class into macroeconomics. It is a very helpful course that helps students to understand all more advances concepts in macroeconomics, policies and international economic relations.
• JEB135 Economics of Global Business – In this class, students get insights into international business relations. It is, in fact, a “soft” introduction to international trade relations while the class JEB 039 offers related quantitative insights.
• JEB039 International Trade – The class is an introduction to the principles guiding international exchanges of goods, services, finance and labour that are also used intensively in solving analytical problems of IPE (e.g., gravity models of trade).
• JEB050 International Finance – The class is an introduction to basic concepts in international finance that are crucial not only for economic but also for political analyses of international relations.
• JEM180 Philosophy, Economics, and Politics: Current Debates – It is one of the main “policy” classes relevant for IEPS students. Participants in the course are engaged in a role-playing game that covers some “hot policy topic” of the year (such as the current financial crisis or Brexit issues). The class forces students to combine their theoretical knowledge with practical insights into policy-decision processes and presentations. 

Technical classes 

• JEM062 Introductory Econometrics – Core introductory classes in econometrics for IEPS students. It offers an introduction into econometrics. If you are already skilled in basic econometrics, then you can improve your knowledge with more advanced classes at IES. The JEM062 class assumes that students have a certain background in mathematics and statistics. Note: All those prerequisites are described in the Appendix of the famous econometrics textbook written by J. Wooldridge (Introductory Econometrics: A Modern Approach, 5^th edition). Please look at Appendix B, D, and C1-C3. Those chapters are summarizing basic mathematics and statistics necessary to understand the class. If you find that you do not understand those chapters, then you can take several introductory classes in mathematics and statistics at IES. Another option, of course, is that you would study yourself to understand those chapters from the Appendix (you can also revise your high-school mathematical knowledge in Appendix A) and save your credits for other classes.
• JEB117 Mathematics for Economists – Basic class covering necessary mathematical tools used by economists. Recommended only if you are not familiar with the concepts covered in the Appendix of Wooldridge or you feel you cannot learn them yourself.
• JEB142 Introductory Statistics – it is an introductory course of probability theory and descriptive statistics which covers the basic notions needed for the course of statistics. The class, unfortunately, does not cover all statistical topics in the Wooldridge’s Appendix chapters, so understanding of several concepts would depend on your self-study. All other classes in statistics at IES are much more technically advanced. Recommended only if you are not familiar with the concepts covered in the Appendix of Wooldridge or you feel you cannot learn them yourself.
• JEM174 Stata for Economists – It offers a basic introduction into one of the most used software in economics (especially in international trade).
• JEM116 Applied Econometrics – The class concentrates on the practical use of econometric methods, reviewing the relevant methodology, its use, and the possible alternative modelling approaches. The course will especially focus on time series techniques applied to forecasting asset volatility, modelling inflation, exchange rate volatility and other topics that you may regularly encounter in economic and financial literature. It is strongly recommended to attend the class after you pass the JEM062 Introductory Econometrics.

NOTE: If you are already skilled in basic econometrics, we rather recommend improving your knowledge with more advanced classes at IES (JEM116 Applied Econometrics, JEM007 Applied Microeconometrics, JEM005 Advanced Econometrics, JEM181 Data Science with R). Those classes offer very good insights into more advanced topics used in high-quality research in academia and business.

Recommended schedule