Trade, exchange rates and open-economy macroeconomics.
Note: the PDF documents themselves are in French.
File: Seance-2-introduction-economie-internationale.pdf
This second session completes the first part of the introduction. It first shows that GDP is both output and national income, and that an excess of imports over exports means a country spends more than it produces; a worked exercise on a small open economy computes the trade balance and domestic expenditure, then checks whether tourism receipts, remittances from Moroccans living abroad and FDI cover the deficit. The session then defines the openness ratio, (X + M)/GDP, and applies it to Morocco, comparing it with the world since 1960. It next explains why international economics matters: the change in the scale of trade since 1970, the container revolution and the effects on everyday life (import prices, export jobs, the dirham exchange rate, remittances from Moroccans living abroad). Most of the session traces the history of the world economy in seven phases, from the first globalisation (1870-1914) to today's fragmentation, using a timeline glossary and the 150-year curve of trade openness: the Great Depression and trade blocs, Bretton Woods, the GATT and the EEC, the Triffin dilemma, the 1982 debt crisis and Morocco's structural adjustment, the WTO and China's entry, the 2008 crisis, Brexit and the trade war, logistics bottlenecks and additional tariffs. The session ends with the arguments for free trade (absolute advantage, comparative advantage, economies of scale, competition and the diffusion of technology).
File: Seance-1-introduction-economie-internationale-v2.pdf
This first session opens the introduction to the international economics course with the example of Tangier: the proximity of the Strait of Gibraltar, the activity of the Tanger Med port and the role of the automotive industry in Moroccan exports. After presenting the objectives and the outline, it recalls that economics studies the allocation of scarce resources, then defines international economics as the study of economic relations between sovereign nations. Four specific features are identified: sovereignty, currencies, the imperfect mobility of factors and the absence of a world government. The session then distinguishes real analysis from monetary and financial analysis, presents the main themes of the discipline and concludes with the circuit of an open economy.
More sessions will be added during the semester (the PDF is in French).