Lecture topics: (review your notes and posted lecture slides):

1. How large was the world economy GDP in 2014? 

2.Official development aid figures; two ways to measure a country’s development aid, how does US foreign aid compare to other countries? 

3. What are the theoretical advantages of neo-liberal economic policies (basic economic theory)? 

4.What are the main problems/criticisms?

 5.Measuring development: what indicators does the Human Development Index (UNDP report) use in addition to economic performance? 

6.UNDP and the World Bank are both operational development organizations that finance projects and programs in developing countries. In what ways do they differ?

7. difference between a loan and a grant, mandate of the World Bank and the IMF, i.e. purpose of their loans?

 8.How much money does the World Bank lend approximately annually? 

9.World Bank evolution in its lending policies, who borrows from the WB?

10. purpose of WB country assistance strategies/country cooperation frameworks, original focus of WB and how has it evolved since the 1990s? 

11. hallenges facing the World Bank as an international organization today?

12. Project monitoring and evaluation: how to measure a project’s success (see slide), changes in leadership in WB and IMF. What is the purpose of the IMF?

 13.Why do countries go to the IMF to borrow money and why do they accept IMF conditionality?

 14.What do IMF structural adjustment programs require countries to do (give concrete examples of steps a country may have to agree to)?

 15.What have the problems with structural adjustment programs of the IMF been?

16. What is the “moral hazard” problem?

 17.What is austerity? 

18.What is the basic economic (and social) argument for trade liberalization? 

19.trade liberalization generates both scale and structural effects. Identify some structural impacts?

 20.What benefits does the multilateral trade system bring (particularly to small or mediumsized country)? 

21.GATT agreement is based on most-favored nation treatment and like-product non-discrimination, what does this mean? 

22.What are subsidies and technical barriers to trade? 

23.Last trade round that was successfully concluded?

24. Trade issues that developed and developing countries continue to disagree most about? 

25.Give two examples of major trade disputes brought before the WTO (see slide, Gutner).

26. What is the crisis triggered by the Trump administration in the WTO about?

 27. Big picture conclusions from the global assessment on Biodiversity and Ecosystems (IPBES) and IPCC climate reports. Rio Conference of 1992, key issues addressed in the Rio Principles that remain important. Current level of CO2 concentration in the Earth atmosphere, recent global warming observations, equity dimensions in international climate politics (slides and my article). How binding is the Paris Agreement, what do countries commit to do (and what is missing)?

28.  What are NDCs? 

29. What is the Global Environment Facility, what is its mandate (what type of programs and projects is it funding), who are its partner organizations? 

30. Approximately how much money is the GEF disbursing a year?

 31. What principles guide its funding decisions?

 Readings, big picture arguments and key supportive illustrations or examples: Gutner (on IMF); Blinder (trade), Gutner (on WTO); Chasek et al., focus on UNEP (IOs and environment), Clémençon (Paris); Olson & Mc Cormick (European Commission, focus on chapter 5, pages 95 – 112), Matthijs (Fix the EU). NOTE: No questions will be drawn from readings or material not explicitly mentioned here.