Students are encouraged to chose any topic that relates to some aspect of globalization, perhaps exploring in depth a topic discussed during the course in the course materials or a topic outside of the course materials. Students are encouraged to discuss their topics with the instructor.
The use of outside sources is strongly encouraged, but all sources should come from quality, scholarly sources. The use of websites such as investopedia and Wikipedia are not permitted. All sources should be appropriately referenced using either the APA or MLA writing styles. Using material that is not your own without appropriate acknowledgement is considered plagiarism/academic misconduct.
The following are some suggested topics:
Typically the topic can be anything related to globalization, which is very wide ranging. The only stipulation is that one part of the paper should include some discussion of public policy.
One possible topic would be to conduct a country specific analysis -Jamaica, China, Japan, Botswana, Ghana, Russia, Ireland, etc. One could look at how the country has evolved over the past 50 years, what changes economically, politically have taken place, have things improved, where it stands now and what type of challenges and public policies need to be implemented to enhance future economic prospects. Other topics have included globalization and the need to enhance national security in Canada and the US in light of terrorism threats - as Huntington predicted.
Do globalization and the integration of economies and financial markets lead to more or less economic/financial market volatility? There has been much research done on this issue. Some would argue that the freer flow of capital has led to more hot money that can be moved out of a country enmasse, the volume of which puts tremendous pressure of the value of the domestic currency and subsequent health of the economy. We have seen this occur on numerous occasions over the past 20 years - the Asian crisis, Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, the US, etc. It begs the question as to whether we need to more to more regulation of capital/capital controls to avoid this volatility or do we just need domestic governments to be more responsibility and accountable for their actions.
A common topic associated with globalization is corporate social responsibility. Companies are realizing the high costs associated with irresponsible and unethical behavior now more than ever. One can examine a corporation in respect to the following areas; international policy, corporate citizenship, health and safety, their role in protecting the environment, what the corporation is doing and plans to do, international practices and attempts to help. There are significant more demands on MNCs in terms of how they satisfy the demands of its clients/customers. On the other hand, we have also seen over the past few years that as governments have attempted to reduce their intrusive nature by privatizing and deregulating, many MNCs have seen this as an opportunity to take advantage of its clients/customers/employees. We have seen the fallout from Brex, Worldcom and Enron to the extent that there is now a call for a reversal in government attitudes - that in our globalized economy, where we wanted/needed to reduce regulation and impediments to attract FDI/MNCs, we now need more. There is now more disclosure requirements for corporations and CEO/managers as well as governments are now going to be held accountable for irresponsible and unethical behaviour.
The whole issue of intellectual property rights is evolving into a major issue both in terms of the need to have this legislation in place in order to attract MNCs and FDI but also the extent to which these rights are violated in many developing countries. I'm thinking more of China whereby it has been fast tracked into the WTO and opened its borders to trade and FDI yet the government is unwilling to strengthen these rights. It is going to be a major agenda item in the next round of multinational trade negotiations. China tops the U.S.annual list of countries criticized for inadequate protection of copyrights, patents and other intellectual property rights.