Global Economic Governance

This course aims at familiarizing students with major issues surrounding global economic governance, exploring both the issues that have been or are now subject to current debates, as well as the institutional questions involved. “Global economic governance” is understood in a broad sense, and thus includes not only global but also regional frameworks, and both formal institutions as well as informal groupings of countries (such as the G7/8 and the G20) and rules of international transactions that have been left to bilateral agreements or are under the domain of national sovereignty but do have global implications. “Economics” is also understood in a broad sense, to include social and environmental issues.

It will start with three general lectures that will place the debates on global governance in relation to those on globalization, and will give a first look at the objectives of international cooperation, the historical evolution of the current governance and typologies of the different rules, organization and governance structures that have been created at varied times. It will then deal in detail with major issues that international cooperation: the role of the UN system, development cooperation, global monetary and financial management, trade and investment, international tax cooperation, and climate change. It will end with discussion of the governance of the system, and a recapitulation of governance issues and reform proposals in light of the global economic developments in the 2008-2019, during COVID-19, and during the current crisis that mixes geopolitical issues with an economic crisis.