Course Catalog

Fall 2007

B6501-001: International Business

T Full Term, 02:15PM to 05:30PM

Instructor: shang-jin wei


Globalization presents incredible opportunities and challenges for firms. Economic policies that have steadily liberalized economies over the past two decades have allowed firms to expand beyond their home market to seek global market opportunities, achieve economies of scale and leverage cost advantages. This has enhanced the potential profitability for any
firm that exploits these global opportunities. At the same time, the global pool of potential competitors can reduce a firm’s profitability. This means that even managers of firms that do not engage in international commerce must understand the economics of international trade and finance.
This course is designed to equip future managers with the analytical tools to understand the salient issues facing multinational corporations today. This entails understanding not just the economics at the firmâ?level, such as evaluating the costs and benefits to expanding a firm’s activity abroad, but also understanding how government policy and macroeconomic factors affect firms’ decisions. We will use a combination of theoretical models, statistical
analysis and case studies to build a foundation for approaching international business decisions.

Shang-Jin Wei

Shang-Jin Wei

N T Wang Professor of Chinese Business and Economy

Shang-Jin Wei has been Professor of Finance and Economics and N.T. Wang Chair in Chinese Business and Economy at Columbia University's Graduate School of Business since 2007. He is also Director for the National Bureau of Economic Research's Working Group on the Chinese Economy and a Research Fellow at the Center for Economic Policy Research (Europe). Before joining Columbia University, he had had the positions of Assistant Director, Chief of Trade and Investment Division, Chief of Mission to Myanmar (Burma) at the International Monetary Fund, the New Century Chair Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Associate Professor at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. He has undertaken consulting work for both private companies such as PricewaterhouseCoopers and government organizations such as the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the United Nations. Professor Wei has published extensively on topics on international finance, trade, and the Chinese economy in leading academic journals. His research has also been reported in Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Economist, Business Week, Chicago Tribune, and other news media. Professor Wei received his MS in business administration (finance) and Ph.d in economics from University of California, Berkeley.

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