The Reading Warehouse

International Economics in the Age of Globalization provides the intellectual basis for an understanding of the increasingly integrated world economy. The requisite background is not solely economic theory, but includes the history and the purposes and workings of the organizations, laws, instruments, and customary practices in the international economy.

Economic theory is not limited to the abstract; its concern with institutions has both a practical and theoretical base. How can one evaluate a criticism of the World Trade Organization, a fear of the dangers of financial derivatives, the supposed freedom of a multinational firm, or the presumed unfairness of dumping without knowing both theory and institutions? Where did these institutions come from? What problems are they solving-as well as creating? This book's balance between theory and institutions is akin to texts in Public Expenditure or Money and Banking. The leading international economics texts, in contrast, push the real world into the background and present the subject as a more specialized intermediate theory course, accessible only to people who have a solid theoretical background. The result is that good discussions of many of the key issues in modern international economics simply are not available in the curriculum, or accessible to any but economics majors. This book aims to remedy that failing, challenging economics majors and non-majors alike. It will also be of value to students of business and public affairs and to the economic-literate general public.

Wilson B. Brown is Professor of Economics at the University of Winnipeg. He holds a Ph.D. in International Affairs from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, has published books with Addison-Wesley and John Wiley, and has taught economics, marketing, and management. He held Fulbright grants to Peru and Thailand (Chiang Mai University) and has been a visiting scholar at the University of Reading.

Jan S. Hogendorn is Grossman Professor of Economics at Colby College. He holds a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and has published widely in economic history, with a special interest in West Africa. His books have been published by Oxford, Cambridge, Academic Press, HarperCollins, and Addison-Wesley. A fellow at Linacre College at Oxford, he has been a visiting scholar at the University of Birmingham, Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria, and Bosporos University in Turkey.