A1. 1. Evaluate the comparative advantage of a country (A1a);

a. Each student selects a country and identifies (a) its major trading
partner(s) and (b) major commodities or services in which they trade and (c)
apply that information to analyze comparative advantage of that country.
Presentation of data is through productivity software such as Excel, and must
also include a FOUR PAGE WRITE UP. Five scores will be administered and are
based on (a) the conciseness of the executive summary that includes a brief
background of the country, the commodities and services that they trade, their
trading partners, and the comparative advantages (G1O1); (b) the ability to
secure data from data sources (listed in section 8) (M2O1) and (c) analyze and
interpret the data (M2O2), and (d) identify the comparative advantage of the
chosen trading partner (INTL-LO2), and (e) specific identification of factors
of globalization that provide a comparative advantage relative to what would
be achieved without international trading opportunities (G3O2).

2. Apply foreign exchange dynamics and test it in a real world situation using
statistical methodology (A1b);
b. Each student collects quarterly data for 3 years on inflation differentials
and income growth differential for two countries and applies a regression
model to forecast a country?s currency exchange value. (The quarterly
percentage change is used as the dependent variable; and the percentage change
in inflation differential for two countries and the income growth differential
between the two form the two independent variables, which are lagged one
period). To understand how exchange value of a country?s currency is
determined against another currency a two page paper and Excel spreadsheets
must be submitted, including the model and its analysis. Three scores are
administered and are based on (a) the model development and solution,
significance of the statistical outcomes, and exploration of the impact that
changes in the independent variables have of that outcome (M2O2); (b) the
appropriate use of Excel and its data analysis and function tools to generate
the appropriate outputs (M2O3); and (c) the substantive quality of the
summary, including model interpretation of the outcomes in the global
environment (G3O1).