Case Study (International Political Economy)
Instructors
Nobuhiro HIWATARI
Credits / Language / Semester
4Credits / English / Summer
2014 Term Papers
Important Note: These papers cannot be cited without the permission of the authors, who have the exclusive copyrights.
- "What Are The Objectives of the U.S. - Sounth Korea Free Trade Agreement for Korean Wave Diplomacy?"
Yuka Yamanouchi
PDF (386 KB), slide for presentation (PDF, 784 KB) - "The Natural Resource Curse in Xinjiang"
Yin Weiwen
PDF (1.94 MB), slide for presentation (PDF, 1.84 MB) - "OFW Remittances: Magic Bullet?"
De La Cruz Valdimir
PDF (538 KB), slide for presentation (PDF, 312 KB) - "Trade Facilitation and Poverty in Developing Countries"
Cabote Nickson Japon
PDF (492 KB), slide for presentation (PDF, 1.52 MB) - "The Quality of Governance and Tax Effort: Evidence from Developed and Developing Countries"
Hossain Mohammad Iqbal
PDF (1.25 MB), slide for presentation (PDF, 1.18 MB) - "How Can Urbanization Policy Influence the Housing Price in China?"
Huang Yan
PDF (2.38 MB), slide for presentation (PDF, 3.66 MB) - "Financial Inclusion in the Philippines: A Regional Assessment"
Tan Tatum Blaise Pua
PDF (2.35 MB), slide for presentation (PDF, 1.62 MB) - "The Shift to Liberalisation & The African Economy"
Golakai Esther Fasia
PDF (360 KB), slide for presentation (PDF, 339 KB) - "Analysis on the Effects of Road Infrastructure on Poverty Reduction in China"
Li Jie
PDF (1.58 MB), slide for presentation (PDF, 1.28 MB)
Objectives/Overview
Presenting his/her research orally and as a paper in English is now a must for policy specialists.
The course is designed to help students write and present an original research paper based on independent empirical research on topics related to international political economy. Participants will obtain firsthand experience on how to formulate research puzzles worthy of an audience, how to efficiently conduct research, and the merits of peer criticisms in that process.
A presentation and submission of a research paper is required for credit. The course will be conducted in English but is tailored for non-native speakers.
Keywords
research design, causal inference, quantitative analysis, comparative analysis, qualitative anaysis
Schedule
At the first class meeting, participants are expected to declare a tentative topic of his/her paper. Thereafter, the course is divided into two parts.
Week 2 to 5: each person will spend time compiling a reference list (bibliography) of the works and data sources related to his/her topic, while taking turns in class introducing the works. Preferably, the articles introduced in class are the leading and updated scholarship on the topic that is of interest to other classmates, which can be found by referring to my international political economy course syllabus or the journals listed there in (download from http://web.iss.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~hiwatari/)
End of Week 5: everyone is expected to hand in a prospectus listing the following; the dependent variable, the basic hypothesis, and the political independent variables and the economic control variables, as well as a reference list of the kind of data and materials 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
After week 6: We will take turns presenting in-class progress reports of their paper. This serves as an exercise in paper presentation. Others in class will make suggestions on how each presenter should proceed in finishing the paper. A completed paper will be present it at a mini-conference held at the end of the semester.
Teaching Methods
It is very important to note that most of the work for this class will be conducted outside the classroom. In class, each participant will improve their presentation skills as well as listening/criticism skills. The use of Power Point and other audio technology is a must.
Participants should become aware that the most effective way to complete a good paper and present it well is by learning from others. Hence, class participation is as important as the presentations.
Grading
Evaluation will be based on class presentations, class participation, and particularly the final research paper and its presentation at the mini-symposium (held at Hongo campus).
Required Textbooks
Readings tailored to fit each participant's research interest will be discussed in class as well as upon individual consultation.
Also, please refer to my international political economy course syllabus which can be downloaded from
Reference Books
Those who wish to familiarize themselves with research designs and methods should find the following useful as a starting point. Further readings can be suggested upon consultation.
1. Gary King, Robert O. Keohane, and Sidney Verba, Designing Social Inquiry (Princeton U.P. 1994)
2. Henry E Brady and David Collier (eds.), Rethinking Social Inquiry (Rowman & Littlefield, 2004)
Notes on Taking the Course
Participants should have a clear idea of what a research paper is before embarking on an effort to write one.
To the first class meeting, everyone MUST bring a sample of an article or a research paper close to his/her research topic. Research papers are available from the websites of international economic organizations (IMF, World Bank, BIS, WTO, OECD and central banks) and think tanks (National Bureau of Economic Research, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Peterson Institute of International Economics, the Brookings Institution, etc.)
You should be willing to spend a couple of afternoons in front of your PC searching for an article/paper that coincides with your interest and can be used as a model for your paper and realize that most of the work for this course is conducted outside the classroom.
Related Websites
http://web.iss.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~hiwatari/
Miscellaneous Information
As listed above, everyone is expected to spend some time PRIOR to the first meeting in search of papers or articles close to one's interest, which they should bring to the first meeting.
Examples of last year's research papers and presentation PPPs can be downloaded from the course website.