Prof Stephanie Rickard

This course is available on the BSc in History and Politics, BSc in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, BSc in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (with a Year Abroad), BSc in Politics, BSc in Politics and Data Science, BSc in Politics and Economics, BSc in Politics and International Relations and BSc in Politics and Philosophy. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course is not available to General Course students.

This course is capped at two groups.

A background in international economics and solid understanding of key concepts, such as comparative advantage, externalities and equilibrium would be advantageous.

The course focuses on the role of interests and institutions in the process and formulation of trade policy. We examine the influences of interests and institutions in trade policy-making, focusing predominantly on developed countries. We draw on theories from economics and political science and analyze these using both historical and contemporary examples, and do so from a comparative perspective, rather than an international relations perspective.

The primary focus of the course is on policy outcomes.

This course provides a minimum of 30 hours of lectures and seminars in the Winter Term. There will be a reading week in WT Week 6.

Weekly writing assignments.

Hiscox, Michael. (2002) “Commerce, Coalitions, and Factor Mobility: Evidence from Congressional Votes on Trade Legislation.” American Political Science Review 96(3): 593-608.

Evans, Carolyn. (2009) “A Protectionist Bias in Majoritarian Politics: An Empirical Investigations.” Economics & Politics 21(2): 278-307.

Milner, Helen V. and Keiko Kubota. (2005) “Why the Move to Free Trade? Democracy and Trade Policy in the Developing Countries.” International Organization 59 (Winter): 107-144.

Essay (100%, 3500 words).