ECN 438 International Monetary Economics

ECN 438 International Monetary Economics
Fall Semester 1999
Meets: 1:40 p.m. - 2:55 p.m. MW, ED 201
Instructor: Igor Lukashin
Office Hours: 3:15 - 4:15 p.m. MW BAC 557 and by appointment

All Finals are in. I'll grade them on my way to Russia and when I get there. Your grades will be available no later than the 20th outside my office and likely on the Web.
FINAL EXAM is ready to be taken in TAKE-HOME format. The file is at http://www.public.asu.edu/~lukashii/ecn438/final/438final.doc . It also be available outside my office after 10 A.M Thursday The final is DUE no later than 5 p.m. Monday, December 13. The Final will cover all of the chapters in your book. I recommend reviewing the midterm and both quizzes for the final. Suggested answers for the midterm, make-up mideterm and quiz #2, as well as your graded copies of quiz #2 are available outside my office. If you need to make copies, please restore the originals back from where you take them. To complete the final exam, you may use any materials you find necessary, but it MUST be your own work. Collaboration is permitted if and only if a) all such collaboration is properly attibuted and recorded b) your own work constitutes no less than 70% of all the final exam's questions.

Extra Credit Available: As it was mentioned in class several times during the course of the semester, extra credit is available to any student who is willing to make a presentation on a topic that is relevant to covered material. I urge the students who currently have an "F", a "D" or even a low "C" (as well as those who are concerned about their final grade in class) to talk to me about a bonus project you are willing to do so you can start on it right away, since the time we have is very limited.

EVALUATIONS will be done on Monday, December 6th. This is your chance to tell me how you liked the course, and what I could do to make it better in the future. Please reserve the time of your busy schedule to attend this particular class session. As an added incentive, I will review some of the concepts that might be on the final exam.
Previous Announcements

Group names and their members are available here. If you have any questions, please email me at the email address below.

Evaluate Igor's Performance! A feedback form you can use to let me know what is going well and what isn't. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any feedback that may make the class experience better for you and/or your classm ates.

Pending/Current Assignments:

Each Class Period: You are responsible for reading at least 2 articles from the recent (within last 3 days) issue of the Wall Street Journal. You are also responsible to coordinate with other members of your group so that everyone in group reads at least 1 common article. Be ready to present your group's article when called upon in class.
Monday , 8/30: First Homework Assignment is due. Available above and was handed out in class August 25.
Wednesday, 10/6: Examine the exchange rates for four major currencies as of 10/5. Calculate the table of cross-rates between these currencies. How much do you think the actual cross-rates would differ, and why?

Lecture notes: Office 97
To Be Posted

Lecture notes by the author of the book who teaches a similar graduate-leve class is available from Dr. Melvin's homepage.

Net Sources
Friends and Partners Site. Russian/ CIS news, history, business opportunities, links.
Olsen & Associates Currency Converter, customized FX analysis.
Soviet Music in Movies and on TV, 1930's through 1980's
Daily dose of Russian humor (in Russian) Switch encoding to cyrillic: View-Encoding-Cyrillic-Windows-1251

Phone: 602-965-0329
FAX: 602-965-0748
Email: economist@asu.edu
Personal Homepage: www.public.asu.edu/~lukashii/

The picture above is a snapshot of the 10,000 ruble note that was in circulation in Russia in 1993. Given that in 1989 the average monthly income of a Russian worker was about 200 rubles, the hyperinflation that resulted from the price lib eralization and the pro-market reforms instituted in Russia in 1991 is evident. In 1997, a currency reform was implemented in which 1,000 pre-1997 rubles was exchanged for 1 "new" ruble. This picture was taken Auguest 29, 1999.

Last updated August 29, 1999.