事例研究（国際政治経済）

Faculty

HIWATARI, Nobuhiro

Credit / Semester / Schedule / Language

4 Credits / Summer / Monday Period: 2 / Wednesday Period: 2 / Japanese/English

2011 Term Papers

Important Note: These papers cannot be cited without the permission of the authors, who have the exclusive copyrights.

Objectives/Overview

The course is designed as a workshop to guide participants in conducting independent empirical research on topics of international political economy and to help them complete a professional research paper.

The course is open to English and Japanese speaking students.

The participants will obtain a firsthand experience on how to formulate relevant research puzzles based on cutting edge academic work, how to efficiently conduct social research, and on the pedagogical merits of peer reviews and criticisms.

The completion of a research paper is required for credit. The paper can be written in either English or Japanese.

Keywords

リサーチ・デザイン（research design）, 記述推定（descriptive inference）, 因果推定（causal inference）, 事例内分析（within-case studies）, 比較事例分析（cross-case studies）, 統計分析（quantitative methods）

Schedule

At the first class meeting, participants are expected to declare the tentative topic of his/her paper. Thereafter, the course is divided into two parts: During the first part of the course (week 2 to 5), the class will read the works of the leading scholars on the topics chosen by each participant. Thus, prior to the first meeting, everyone is expected to have in mind an author and/or articles the person wishes to dissect in class, selected by referring to either my international political economy course syllabus from or the table of contents of recent issues of major journals in international political economy (such as, International Organization, World Politics, International Studies Quarterly, International Interaction, Journal of Conflict Resolution, etc.).

The purpose of this exercise is to familiarize oneself with how his/her topic is argued by top researchers as well as to understand the basic structure of academic/professional papers. Among the scholars listed in my syllabus, people such as Mansfield-Milner (trade), Simmons (investment and finance), Rodrick (development), Bernhard-Leblang, (currency), Quinn (capital liberalization), Jensen (Investment), Busch-Reinhardt (WTO), Dreher-Veeland (IMF), etc, are likely to appear as one’s choice of readings.

By the end of week 5, everyone is expected to hand in a prospectus stating what the dependent variable and the basic hypothesis of the paper is, what the political independent and economic control variables are, and what kind of data or materials will be used to substantiate the hypothesis. By then, each participant is likely to realize that research papers in international political economy are usually structured in the following manner, regardless of whether it is a quantitative and large-n or a qualitative and small-n research:

International economic policy/relations = political independent variables + economic control variables

The dominant part of the course (after week 6) will be consumed by in-class progress reports.

Everyone will take turns in reporting how their paper is progressing while others will make suggestions and criticisms on how each reporter should proceed in finishing the paper. Everyone is expected to write up his/her research paper and present it at a mini-conference, which will be held at the end of the semester.

Teaching Methods

In the first few sessions we will review the literature relevant to each participant's research. Thereafter we will take turns presenting an updated report on the progress of their paper.

Grading

Class attendance, in-class presentations, and a final research paper (presented at a mini-conference held at Hongo campus).

Required Text

Readings will be tailored to fit each participant's research interest upon consultation. Please refer to my international political economy course syllabus from or the table of contents of recent issues of major journals in international political economy (such as, International Organization, World Politics, International Studies Quarterly, International Interaction, Journal of Conflict Resolution, etc.) in order to formulate an idea of what a research paper is.

Reference Books

Those who wish to familiarize themselves with research designs and methods should find the following useful as a starting point.

1. Gary King, Robert O. Keohane, and Sidney Verba, Designing Social Inquiry (Princeton U.P. 1994)(『社会科学のリサーチ・デザイン』真渕勝監訳、勁草書房)

2. Henry E Brady and David Collier (eds.), Rethinking Social Inquiry (Rowman & Littlefield, 2004) (『社会科学の方法論争』泉川泰博・宮下明聡訳、勁草書房)

Further readings can be suggested upon consultation.

Notes on Taking the Course

The class will be conducted in Japanese if ALL the participants are Japanese natives, otherwise the class will be conducted in English for the benefit of non-Japanese speakers.

Everyone must have a clear idea of what a research paper is before embarking on an effort to write one. Thus, everyone MUST bring to our first meeting a sample of a research paper close to their research topic. Research papers can be download from the websites of international economic organizations (IMF, World Bank, BIS, WTO, National Bureau of Economic Research, and central banks) or from the websites of major journals in international political economy (such as, International Organization, World Politics, International Studies Quarterly, International Interaction, Journal of Conflict Resolution, etc.).

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