• Assess the impacts of trade flows on economic well-being, growth, and income distribution.
• Analyse recent developments and future challenges in the world trading system; explain their impacts on individual countries and the global economy.
• Demonstrate group working and presentation skills.

Course Learning Outcomes:

• L6.2: Compare, contrast and assess the alternative economic policies of governments on the impact on the global economic environment.
• L6.4 Demonstrate professional oral, written, communication, and interpersonal skills directly relevant to employment in economics and finance.

Each student is required to have coursework by choosing two countries from South-South Cooperation (select the pair of countries either from Lower-middle income, upper-middle and higher income from the World Bank classification) from the provided list on a first come-first served basis through the following link

http://www.fc-ssc.org/en/partnership_program/south_south_countries

https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/articles/906519-world-bank-country-and-lending-groups

The aim of this assignment is to explore the factors determining the bilateral trade volume between countries with different levels of development, and measure and discuss their trade potential using the revealed comparative advantages.

In their report, each student should:

1. Provide general information about the countries (e.g. location, resource endowment, specialization and the main trading partners, etc.)
2. Critically evaluate the current trade policies of the selected countries (e.g import substitution vs export promotion strategies ) and compare the composition and the direction of their exports and imports.
3. Analyze the trade potential of selected countries by computing the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) for 5 top export products for the most recent yearand explain whether these indexes appropriately reflect the trade policies adopted by the chosen countries;
4. Develop a basic gravity model by conducting an empirical analysis on the factors determining bilateral trade flows. Compare your results in case the income groups of the countries are different, explain whether their economic expansions are affecting their bilateral trade volumes in the same way or differently.