If it is July, it must be time to think about teaching...

This is no joke. Most people think academics get to take the summer off to vacation as they please. Even some of the better informed think the summer is just for research--with students and teaching as far from the mind as possible. The fiction is also reflected in academic salaries, which are paid for nine months of work. In principle, we do not get paid over the summer since we are not supposed to be doing any work for our institutions.

If it were only so! It is hot as hell in Turkey (yes, I can at least get away from Cambridge during the summer months...) and I am busy preparing my course syllabus for the Fall. We have to turn in our course reserve lists in early August, and if you are revising your course in any way--as I am--this means getting busy right about now.

This gives me occasion to meditate about the nature of teaching economics in a public policy school.

There is a standard mold for teaching economics to undergraduates and to doctoral students. Look at syllabi for courses in international trade in leading universities, and you will see very few differences. That is because there are some standard textbooks to follow, and because (at the doctoral level) there is a clear academic literature that has to be taught.

But how do you teach international trade and trade policy to a group of students who will be policy makers and professionals in the real world--who are too sophisticated and well informed to treat as undergraduates, but for whom the typical doctoral course is useless because it covers the research frontier and not the tools for thinking about policy? 

This is a tough one, and even though I have thought about it for quite some time and experimented with different models over the years, it is a question that still baffles me. The international trade course that I teach is targeted at second-year MPAIDs, who have excellent training in microeconomic theory and econometrics. Somewhat paradoxically, this makes the challenge even greater. With a less well-prepared group, you can resort to the usual excuse: well, these students don't have much background in economics, so I have no choice to teach an essentially undergraduate course, with a few policy anecdotes thrown in. But the students who take my course have invested in heavy duty economics for a whole year (see here for their curriculum) and now deserve better. My hope is to train them beyond simply being able to understand what is in the WSJ, FT, or The Economist. They need to be able to evaluate critically what is in the policy-relevant academic literature and think creatively about policy options in light of that literature.

This is a lot more difficult than it may appear. The last few times I have tried to do this, I found myself teaching too much of a conventional doctoral economics type course--with lots of theory and so on. Students (rightly) complained that we did not have enough time left to get to discuss policy issues.

So this time around I am trying something different. I am organizing the syllabus around policy issues rather than the standard topic headings. So, rather than have a section in the syllabus on "theories of comparative advantage," the relevant headings become "why do countries trade what they do," and "does it matter?" Globalization strategies, China, WTO, and regional trade agreements get their own sections. (See here for the syllabus as it stands at present--minus the readings.)

You might say, what's the big deal? Well, the challenge is to teach an issues-oriented course while avoiding superficiality and still remaining rigorous and strongly grounded in the literature. I do not know if I will pull it off. Check back at the end of the Fall term.

And if you have any suggestions about additional topics for the course, do let me know. (But bear in mind that my colleague Federico Sturzenegger teaches a continuation of this course in the Spring, covering financial globalization.)

Comments

[Anon]

Given the large number of bilateral agreements recently, a discussion about the motivation for and desirability of such agreements also seems worthy of some time.

[robertdfeinman]

This seems like a variation on the age-old discussion of whether education should be turning out "gentlemen" or technocrats.

When Greek and Latin were a big part of the curriculum part of the reason for this was to ensure that the future leaders wouldn't be tainted with any practical knowledge as was happening at trade schools.

There is no right answer, it changes from subject to subject and from period to period.

[sdasdasda]

Third party certification of FTA provisions or private contractual terms like whether labour laws were followed in production, whether certain environmental constraints on raw materials were followed, third party private inspectors as a way to get around unreliable and possibly corrupt government officials, and the loss of sovereignty that people who propose such arrangements rarely acknowledge. Also NGOs are missing and the loss of sovereignty that some feel are implicit in them.

[Miguel Almunia]

Dear Dani, the syllabus looks very appealing so far. I think it's worth taking the risk to try something new in this type of class (this is a 2nd-year MPAID writing).
My only suggestion: maybe the WTO is too important a topic to be left for the last week. Would it make sense to put it around week 8 or 9?
Regards.

[Jon]

Any chance your lectures and discussions will be podcast?

[Peter]

If I were in your shoes (which I wouldn't be, since I have very large feet), I would try to have at least one and perhaps several major case studies. The case would consist of a policy question for a particular country and review of the literature that should inform the decision. Students could be assigned to summarize and present different pieces of that literature. The case would take 1-2 weeks to thoroughly explore. The "product" might not be a decision as such, but the outlines of a research program.

[brian]

Hi Prof. Rodrik,

I’ve enjoyed following your blog this summer, and look forward to taking your class (it’s open to MPPs, right?). I have the impression that your class centers primarily on the economics of trade, while Prof. Lawrence covers the political and legal side in ITF-110. With that in mind, below are trade topics I’d like to learn more about:

*Overview of the contentious points of disagreement among trade economists
*The relationship between trade and migration, in theory and practice
*Economic relevance of amber/blue/green-box distinctions
*Cases of liberalization helping and hindering development
*Trade remedies and China as an NME
*Most importantly, how MPPs/MPA-IDs can be involved in trade policy. While PhD's debate the nuanced pros and cons of trade, industry lawyer-lobbyists tyrannize policy-making. Where is our role?

Hope to see you in September!

Thanks,
Brian

[brian]

one more thing... zeroing

[Barkley Rosser]

To Peter,

You may have big feet, but Dani Rodrik has big shoes (to fill).

To Dani,

Good luck.

[Per Kurowski]

I hope you can manage someone putting the heat on in the heat

Higher Education needs to be more of a joint venture

Hearing so many young professionals in the USA describing their problems with debts they incurred while studying, I guess that soon some of them could be suing their Alma Maters for misrepresentation or plain failure in delivering the services offered.

Perhaps the incentive structure of the education system needs to be revised so that at least some of the higher education providers offer to collect a part of their fees through a profit participation scheme, like for instance by receiving a small percentage of the student’s future earned gross income that is above the level that the student could have been estimated to earn without further education, during his first 20 years of work.

How are then the universities going to pay for their professors now? Easy, that is what the financial markets are for. These participations in the future of our youngsters could be securitized and sold in the markets, perhaps even as a good investment for a professor’s retirement fund… of course, that is if the professor delivers on his promises.

For a university to show a willingness to invest in their own students, because they are sure of what they are giving them, might be a better marketing tool than outright grants and “we invest our money in your future” is my slogan. Also, for students, the question of what university offers to invests the most present dollars against the smallest percentage of the expected future earnings... should rank among the first when selecting an Alma Mater into which to invest their own future.

By the way this is why I am currently recommending my young friends when they take off for their MBA that they forget the apple-now and instead offer a couple of basis points on their first 10 years earnings to those teachers they feel could best advance their careers…it makes wonders!

[David Lynch]

I'm sure the course will be very good as usual. As you know as well as anyone, one of the advantages of being rigorous is that it keeps you honest about what you know and what you do not know. I expect many trade issues are pressing and difficult because making decisions about them involves making assumptions about things we do not know. It might help your students to ensure that they have a very clear understanding not only of what we know about trade at present, but also a very clear understanding of what we do not know. That way, when they encounter new situations, they will know when there is room to be "creative" - because the literature has little to say about something - and when there is not - because the literature has already ruled out several possiblities that might be floated as options. If trade models and their corresponding policy prescriptions are as malleable as many trade economists say they are, then it might be good to know whether (or how) to identify a given model as belonging to the "established findings" group or the "one possibility but really we can't say anything with confidence so you may need to be creative and go back to first principles when dealing with issues of this type" group.

[Rupert]

This looks like a fascinating course - I hope I can find room to take it - could I echo the request for a country case study? I think we would learn a lot from spending 1 or 2 weeks trying to figure out for a particular country (a) where its comparative advantage lies and (b) what interventions a policymaker could make to exploit and enhance it: tariffs, subsidies, tax incentives, etc?

Have a good summer, Rupert

[Cindy]

I agree with Rupert and others - a case study would really help animate in-class discussions. A small group format (2-3 people) would be ideal.

Thanks to you -- and to all our professors -- for your hard work this summer!

From Kigali, Cindy

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This looks like a fascinating course - I hope I can find room to take it - could I echo the request for a country case study? I think we would learn a lot from spending 1 or 2 weeks trying to figure out for a particular country (a) where its comparative advantage lies and (b) what interventions a policymaker could make to exploit and enhance it: tariffs, subsidies, tax incentives, etc?

Have a good summer, Rupert
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I agree with Rupert and others - a case study would really help animate in-class discussions. A small group format (2-3 people) would be ideal.

Thanks to you -- and to all our professors -- for your hard work this summer!

From Kigali, Cindy

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