Course Description:
Why are some countries so poor and how can we promote their economic development? What role do international organizations play? What about the role of democratic government? These are some of the questions we will address in this research-oriented seminar.

What does it mean to call the course "research-oriented"? Students will be given exercises throughout the semester to develop their own research projects. The goal of the course will be to produce research projects that the students build from throughout their Georgetown educational experience.

Hopefully, the students will eventually publish their own original research on a question pertaining to international politics and economic development.

No previous experience is expected of the students. The only prerequisite is a passion for learning – and an interest in numbers. The course has a heavy quantitative component as most of the research we address in the course employs quantitative data. If you would like to get a head start on statistics in an applied setting, this is the course for you.

From a substantive point of view, we will address four distinct research projects: (1) the political economy of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), (2) the determinants and consequences of democracy, (3) the political economy of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), and (4) the effect of economic transparency on political stability.

Our examination of these topics does not purport to be exhaustive in any way. Rather, we use these projects as substantive windows on the world of research in political science. Broadly speaking, as this is a course in international political economy, we will be considering the ways in which international and domestic political institutions impact the production, distribution, and consumption of scarce resources. But there is also a practical reason for the reading assignments: they are all projects in which I have been involved, so I can provide a detailed background on how the research was conducted. In that sense, the course is a "tell all" about how to conduct research in the field of international political economy.

The assignments for this class are designed to give the students the opportunity to develop a research project of their own in parallel with the research projects that we will study in class. The goal of the course is for students to construct a project on which they can build in the future -- perhaps for their senior essay or perhaps for publication in an academic journal.

Hopefully the prospect of publishing original research is inspiring. We will read successful publications of former students. If they can do it, you can too! But it's also probably pretty daunting. How do we even get started?

All research begins with a question, and thus the students should start with a question of their own. The course will then teach the students how to develop an answer to their question (or a hypothesis), and how to test their hypotheses. We will consider various tests, broadly grouped into "case study" approaches and "statistical" approaches. Note that while experimental approaches are becoming more common in political science, for certain questions we are restricted to considering data provided to us by historical events, which certainly do not represent a random sample. Thus, questions of "non-random" selection will loom large over much of what we consider in this class. From a methodological point of view, we will be concerned with questions of "endogeneity" and "non-random selection." In other words, we will be concerned with distinguishing the circumstances under which phenomena take place from their inherent effects.

For each of the substantive topics mentioned above, we will go through a series of similar questions. For the IMF, we will ask: (1) What is the impact of the IMF on economic development? (2) Why do governments turn to the IMF? Regarding democracy, we will ask: (1) Why do some countries have democracy and others do not? (2) What is the effect of democracy on economic growth? Turning to the UNSC, we will ask: (1) Who gets elected to the UNSC? (2) What is the effect of UNSC membership on foreign aid? (3) Is politically-driven aid less effective? Regarding economic transparency, we will ask: (1) How do we measure economic transparency? (2) What are the consequences for political stability?

These are all research questions that the instructor himself has worked on. Building the course around the instructor's own research provides the students the opportunity to see research from an intimate and candid perspective. Just as the students will be thinking of their own potential research projects, they can observe how some of the instructor's ideas became a research-proposal, how a research-proposal became a paper, a paper became a publication, and how a series of publications became a book. Indeed, the final set of readings (on transparency) involve an ongoing research project of the instructor so the students can read and comment on a book in progress.

The very first set of readings (due for the first day of class!) are special. Substantively, they address the political economy of, respectively, democracy, the United Nations Security Council and the Asian Development Bank, and transparency. The first reading addresses the impact that democracy can have on the regulation of a monopolistic technology: telecommunications. In brief, the article shows that calling democracies via long distance is cheaper than calling autocracies (using Skype data). The second paper establishes a hitherto unknown link between the UN Security Council and the Asian Development Bank. It argues that because Japan cares a great deal about holding influence over the Security Council, it is willing to use its substantial power over the Asian Development Bank to funnel loans to countries serving on the Security Council. The third paper considers the effect of economic transparency on investment flows.

Why are these readings particularly special? The research was conducted by undergraduate students just like you! Daniel Lim (author of the Asian Development Bank article and currently a Ph.D. student at Harvard) started his research with me as a junior. Christian Holkeboer (author of the telecommunications paper and currently a senior in SFS) started his research in this very proseminar! The authors of the transparency paper, Elaine Shen and Mike Sliwinski started their research project as sophomores.

You too can pursue publishable research in international political economy, and your path to this goal can begin in this class...

Learning Goals:
The proseminars have a common set of learning goals beyond the specific of each course:

Critical Skills: The proseminars promote critical thinking, reading of texts, development of research skills, expository writing, and oral presentation skills. The research paper is emphasized in our seminar. Students will articulate a research question and develop an argument addressing their question. The argument will be supported by reason (theory), copious references to existing research on the topic, and evidence (both qualitative/discursive and quantitative/data-based).

Intellectual Curiosity: Proseminars challenge students to pursue the rigorous and in-depth pursuit of a single topic. As appropriate, students will:

Interdisciplinary Thinking: The proseminars develop connections across disciplines and assist students to approach problems by integrating a theoretical perspective, the scientific model, and an appropriate research method. Our seminar sits squarely at the crossroads of Political Science and Economics with a lot of Statistics. In pursuing their research projects, past students have also drawn on other disciplines, including Sociology, History, International Law, Music, Philosophy, Theology, Literature, Mathematics, and Chemistry.

Information Literacy: The proseminars emphasize the students' ability to find, assess, use, and properly *cite* source material, including primary and/or secondary, quantitative, on-line and/or in print. The class can meet with a research librarian to learn more about these resources, which will prove useful throughout the students' undergraduate education and beyond.

Cultural Awareness: The proseminars encourage students to be inquisitive of, and aware of, their own and completely different cultures and perspectives. We will consider methods of discovering the determinants of different cultural practices and norms. We will also think critically about how cultural practices may really cause certain outcomes and how cultural stereotypes can often distract us from the actual causal factors. The role of culture has been extensively discussed in the literature on the causes and consequences of democracy. We will aso discuss culture in our class on political economy through the music of Bob Marley.

The Global Community of Scholars: The proseminars form a micro-cosmic academic community, in which students and the professor may count on each other as colleagues in a common intellectual venture. Marks of such a community may include exchanges rooted in respect, mutual support, shared insights, creative play of ideas, and academic companionship through collaboration and academic companionship through collaboration and/or teamwork. Note that in our seminar, all students will be involved in collaborative (co-authored) research projects.

Requirements:

This section has five parts: (1) Short writing assignments, (2) Long writing assignment, (3) Class presentations, (4) STATA, and (5) Research teams. Please read through all five parts carefully.

Note that the course grade will be determined by class participation & attendance – including your presentations and your attention to the presentations of others (35%), short-writing assignments (30%), and the long writing assignment (35%).

(1) Short writing assignments:


• September 12: What is your research question? (1 sentence to 1 paragraph long)
  
  
• September 19: What is your primary dependent variable of interest? (What are you explaining?) What is your primary independent variable of interest? (What do you hypothesize does the explaining?) What kind of "selection" problems do you face? (1-2 pages, double-spaced)
  
  
• September 26: Data! What are the, respective, means, medians, standard deviations, minimum values, and maximum values of your main dependent and independent variables? What are the sources of these data? What is the unit of observation (e.g., country-year)? How many observations do you have of each variable? (1-2 pages, double-spaced) CLICK FOR ELECTRONIC RESOURCES
  
  
• October 3: Annotated bibliography! Find at least 20 academic articles related to your research. Provide a summary sentence linking the main finding of the article to your specific project.
  
  
• October 10: List case studies. Why did you choose these cases (discuss in terms of the distributions of your independent and/or dependent variables)? (1-2 pages, double-spaced)
  
  
• October 17: (Preliminary) Presentations Rough outline: (1) Research question, (2) Hypothesis, (3) Methodology, (4) Results (if any are available), (5) Conclusion (you probably won't have one yet!)
  
  
• October 24: What is the correlation between your independent and dependent variables?
  
  
• October 31: Control variables! What other factors influence your dependent variable? How do you account for them?
  
  
• November 7: Abstract! (1) Research question, (2) Hypothesis, (3) Methodology, (4) Result, (5) Conclusion (150 words)
  
  
• November 14: Multivariate regression: Just do it.
  
  
• November 21: Put it together! (1) abstract, (2) introduction, (3) background (remember the annotated bibliography?), (4) cases, (5) descriptive data, (6) multivariate results, (7) conclusion
  
  
• November 28: Share comments on each other's drafts.
  
  
• December 5: Final Presentations

  Nota bene:
  All short written assignments are due electronically by 10:15am on the date listed above at my email address: jrv24@georgetown.edu. Students are required to complete 10 out of 11 assignments. Late assignments will *NOT* be accepted. Assignments should be double-spaced with 12-point font and (at least) 1 inch margins. Please be sure to familiarize yourself with Georgetown’s honor system.

  Also note that perhaps the most important part of the writing process is the pain of re-writing, and re-writing, and... re-writing.

  YOUR FILE ***MUST*** BE NAMED:
  
            INAF100_####_LASTNAME,
  
  WHERE "#" REPRESENTS THE MONTH & DAY AND "LASTNAME" REPRESENTS YOUR LAST/FAMILY NAME.
  
  FOR EXAMPLE, THE FIRST ASSIGNMENT (due Sept 12) FOR A STUDENT NAMED Joann Gayoung Kim WOULD BE SAVED AS: inaf100_0912_kim
  
  FOR A STUDENT NAMED Sumegh Sodani, THE FIRST ASSIGNMENT WOULD BE SAVED AS: inaf100_0912_sodani

  If you don't name the file exactly as instructed, you may not receive credit from me (because the file will go astray).

  
  

(2) Long writing assignment (due date December 12):
After you "put it together," I will read your paper very carefully over Thanksgiving and give it back to you on November 28. You should then revise your paper and turn in the final version in by December 12.

(3) Class presentations:
You will make two presentations in class (noted above). I will provide detailed instructions on how to structure the presentations, and you will be given strict time limits. The purpose of these exercises is to give you practice for real-life presentations that you will surely make throughout your careers. Many highly successful past students have told me that this aspect of the course has been the most valuable in advancing them through their careers. Note that the first presentation will involve only a preliminary discussion of your research plans, while the second presentation will involve more substance. Also note that I will grade you as more on how you treat your fellow students' presentations than on your own presentation. You should plan to pay attention to the other presentations, of course, and also to pose good questions and provide constructive feedback following the presentations.

(4) STATA:
The university has a site license for Stata. All students should install Stata on their laptops and plan to bring their laptops to class. To install Stata, please click this link to get to the GU "Software Webstore." Search for "Stata," place it in your "cart" and then "check out" for free! Then follow the (long set of) instructions to install Stata on your laptop. If you do not have a laptop and would like to borrow one for class, loaners are available - just ask me about the program. Otherwise, if you prefer to work on a desktop, you can look on in class with a member of your research team. Stata is also available on all computers in the labs on campus.

(5) Research teams:
Time is limited in class. Each week, we will discuss the progress that you are making on your project. In order to provide time for a thorough discussion of each research project, we need to limit the total number. We simply do not have enough time each week to have a thorough discussion of about 15 projects. So, the students will work (ideally) in pairs. The collaborations of students in the past have worked out extremely well – we'll figure out good teams in the first weeks as discuss who will research what questions. (I know it seems daunting to do joint-work, but you'll have to trust me that past collaborations have generated amazing experiences and life-long friendships.)

• Przeworski, Adam, Michael Alvarez, José Antonio Cheibub, and Fernando Limongi. 2000. Democracy and Development: Political Regimes and Economic Well-being in the World, 1950-1990. New York: Cambridge University Press.
  Library call number: JC423.D4395 2000
  ISBN-13: 978-0521793797
  It is available as an e-book from Amazon. Click here

• Vreeland, James Raymond. 2003. The IMF and Economic Development. New York: Cambridge University Press.
  Library call number: HG3881.5.I58 V74 2003
  ISBN-13: 978-0521016957
  It is available as an e-book from Amazon. Click here
  Vreeland, James Raymond and Axel Dreher. 2014. The Political Economy of the United Nations Security Council: Money and Influence.. New York: Cambridge University Press.
  Library call number: JZ5006.7 .V74 2014
  ISBN-13: 978-0521740067
  It is available as an e-book from Amazon. Click here

Electronic resources useful for the course (including webpages for databases!):

• The World Bank's World Development Indicators (WDI)
  • For the menu to choose countries, years, and series (variables), click here.
  • TIP: To download, don't choose "download" – first choose "Table," then "table options" (symbol looks like a gear), under orientation choose "custom," set: Country to "Page," Series to "Column," and Time to "Row." Then "Apply Changes," and *now* click "Download."

• The World Bank's World DataBank – the full set of World Bank datasets

• AidData

• The Quality of Government Institute (QOG) – a nice resource that has merged many of the variables that you are looking for all together into one dataset!

• DD

• Polity

• OECD Aid Statistics (beware – this webpage is not user-friendly)

• UN Comtrade (really beware – this webpage is really not user-friendly)

Course Outline

September 5: Introduction to student research

Class 1 Lecture notes (if any) - to be posted after class

REQUIRED WRITING ASSIGNMENT:
None

REQUIRED READING ASSIGNMENTS:
Vreeland, James Raymond (editor). 2014. The First Walsh School of Foreign Service Undergraduate Working Paper Series in International Political Economy: Foreign Policy Goals and Preferences in International Political Economy. Ms.
READ PAGES 4-11. THEN READ PAGES 4-6 TWO MORE TIMES.

Holkeboer, Christian Bachelder and James Raymond Vreeland. 2013. Calling Democracies and Dictatorships: The effect of political regime on international long-distance rates. Kyklos 66 (3): 417–437.
Replication materials (click here)

Lim, Daniel Yew Mao and James Raymond Vreeland. 2013. Regional Organizations and International Politics: Japanese Influence over the Asian Development Bank and the UN Security Council. World Politics 65 (1): 34-72.
Replication materials (click here)

Shen, Elaine and Mike Sliwinski. 2015. A Clear Advantage: The Benefits of Transparency to Foreign Direct Investment. International Public Policy Review 9 (2): 26-36.
Replication materials (click here)

September 12: Economic transparency and political stability

Class 2 Lecture notes (if any) - to be posted after class

REQUIRED WRITING ASSIGNMENT:
What is your research question? (1 sentence to 1 paragraph long)

REQUIRED READING ASSIGNMENT:
Hollyer, James R., B. Peter Rosendorff, and James Raymond Vreeland. In progress. Economic Transparency and Political Stability. Draft manuscript.
Everyone read Chapters 1 & 10
1/3 of class read (respectively): Parts I, II, III

September 19: The political economy of democracy (1) – Why do some countries have democracy and others do not?

Class 3 Lecture notes (if any) - to be posted after class

REQUIRED WRITING ASSIGNMENT:
(1) What is your primary DEPENDENT variable of interest? (What are you explaining?)
(2) What is your primary INDEPENDENT variable of interest? (What do you hypothesize does the explaining?)
(3) What kind of "selection" problems do you face? (1-2 pages, double-spaced)

REQUIRED READING ASSIGNMENT:
Przeworski, Adam, Michael Alvarez, José Antonio Cheibub, and Fernando Limongi. 2000. Democracy and Development: Political Regimes and Economic Well-being in the World, 1950-1990. New York: Cambridge University Press.
CHAPTERS 1 & 2

September 26: The political economy of the UN Security Council (1)
Also: Special visit by Librarian Elizabeth Foster

Class 4 Lecture notes (if any) - to be posted after class

REQUIRED WRITING ASSIGNMENT:
Data!
What are the, respective, means, medians, standard deviations, minimum values, and maximum values of your main dependent and independent variables?
What are the sources of these data?
What is the unit of observation (e.g., country-year)?
How many observations do you have of each variable? (1-2 pages, double-spaced)
CLICK FOR ELECTRONIC RESOURCES

REQUIRED READING ASSIGNMENT:
Vreeland, James Raymond and Axel Dreher. 2014. The Political Economy of the United Nations Security Council: Money and Influence. New York: Cambridge University Press.
CHAPTER 1
Want to see the original proposal? It's available as a "document" called "Vreeland & Dreher Proposal" on Blackboard (click here)

October 3: The political economy of the IMF (1) – What is the impact of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on economic development? What is the SELECTION problem? Why do governments turn to the IMF (case study selection)?

Class 5 Lecture notes (if any) - to be posted after class

REQUIRED WRITING ASSIGNMENT:
Annotated bibliography!
Find at least 20 academic articles related to your research. Provide a summary sentence linking the main finding of the article to your specific project.

REQUIRED READING ASSIGNMENT:
Vreeland, James Raymond. 2003. The IMF and Economic Development. New York: Cambridge University Press.
CHAPTERS 1 & 2
Want to see the original proposal? It's available as a "document" called "Vreeland Dissertation Proposal" on Blackboard (click here)

October 10: Previous Student Research on Foreign Aid

Class 7 Lecture notes (if any) - to be posted after class

REQUIRED WRITING ASSIGNMENT:
List case studies.
Why did you choose these cases (discuss in terms of the distributions of your independent and/or dependent variables)? (1-2 pages, double-spaced)

REQUIRED READING ASSIGNMENT:

Mazumder, Soumyajit and James Raymond Vreeland. 2013. O Canada, we stand on guard for thee: Foreign aid benefits for members of the Bretton Woods Canadian-bloc. Mortara Center Working Paper.

Suh, Josie and James Raymond Vreeland. 2013. Korea and Foreign Aid: Buying Export Markets. Mortara Center Working Paper.

Vreeland, James Raymond. 2011. Foreign Aid and Global Governance: Buying Bretton Woods - The Swiss-bloc case. Review of International Organizations 6 (3-4):369-391.

October 17: Student presentations

REQUIRED ASSIGNMENT:
POWERPOINT presentation file
(Preliminary) Presentations Rough outline: (1) Research question, (2) Hypothesis, (3) Methodology, (4) Results (if any are available), (5) Conclusion (you probably won't have one yet!)

REQUIRED READING ASSIGNMENT:
none

October 24: The political economy of the IMF (2) – Why do governments turn to the IMF and with what effects on economic growth?

Class 8 Lecture notes (if any) - to be posted after class

REQUIRED WRITING ASSIGNMENT:
What is the correlation between your independent and dependent variables?

REQUIRED READING ASSIGNMENT:
Vreeland, James Raymond. 2003. The IMF and Economic Development. New York: Cambridge University Press.
CHAPTERS 4 & 5
Want to see the original proposal? It's available as a "document" called "Vreeland Dissertation Proposal" on Blackboard (click here)

October 31: The political economy of democracy (2) – What is the effect of democracy on economic growth?

Class 9 Lecture notes (if any) - to be posted after class

REQUIRED WRITING ASSIGNMENT:
Control variables!
What other factors influence your dependent variable? How do you account for them?

REQUIRED READING ASSIGNMENT:
Przeworski, Adam, Michael Alvarez, José Antonio Cheibub, and Fernando Limongi. 2000. Democracy and Development: Political Regimes and Economic Well-being in the World, 1950-1990. New York: Cambridge University Press.
CHAPTER 3

November 7: The political economy of the UN Security Council (2): Who gets elected?

Class 10 Lecture notes (if any) - to be posted after class

REQUIRED WRITING ASSIGNMENT:
Abstract!
(1) Research question, (2) Hypothesis, (3) Methodology, (4) Result, (5) Conclusion (150 words)

REQUIRED READING ASSIGNMENT:
Vreeland, James Raymond and Axel Dreher. 2014. The Political Economy of the United Nations Security Council: Money and Influence.. New York: Cambridge University Press.
CHAPTER 4
Want to see the original proposal? It's available as a "document" called "Vreeland & Dreher Proposal" on Blackboard (click here)

November 14: The political economy of the UN Security Council (3): Why bribe votes?

Class 11 Lecture notes (if any) - to be posted after class

REQUIRED WRITING ASSIGNMENT:
Multivariate regression: Just do it.

REQUIRED READING ASSIGNMENT:
Vreeland, James Raymond and Axel Dreher. 2014. The Political Economy of the United Nations Security Council: Money and Influence.. New York: Cambridge University Press.
CHAPTER 2 & 3
Want to see the original proposal? It's available as a "document" called "Vreeland & Dreher Proposal" on Blackboard (click here)

November 21: The political economy of the UN Security Council (4): Data analysis

Class 12 Lecture notes (if any) - to be posted after class

REQUIRED WRITING ASSIGNMENT:
Put it together! (1) abstract, (2) introduction, (3) background (remember the annotated bibliography?), (4) cases, (5) descriptive data, (6) multivariate results, (7) conclusion

REQUIRED READING ASSIGNMENT:
Vreeland, James Raymond and Axel Dreher. 2014. The Political Economy of the United Nations Security Council: Money and Influence.. New York: Cambridge University Press.
CHAPTER 5 (Chapters 6 & 7 optional)
Want to see the original proposal? It's available as a "document" called "Vreeland & Dreher Proposal" on Blackboard (click here)

November 28: Political Economy through the music of Bob Marley

Class 13 Lecture notes (if any) - to be posted after class

REQUIRED WRITING ASSIGNMENT:
Share comments on each other's drafts.

READING ASSIGNMENT (read all lyrics):

• Marley, Bob and King Sporty. 1983. "Buffalo Soldier." Confrontation. Island Records/Tuff Gong.


• Marley, Bob. 1980. "Redemption Song." Uprising. Island Records/Tuff Gong.


• Marley, Bob. 1979. "Zimbabwe." Survival. Island Records/Tuff Gong.


• Marley, Bob. 1973. "I shot the sheriff." Burnin'. Island Records/Tuff Gong.


• Marley, Bob. 1976. "War." Rastaman Vibration. Island Records/Tuff Gong.


• Marley, Bob. 1977. "One Love/People Get Ready." Exodus. Island Records/Tuff Gong.


• Ford, Vincent (Bob Marley?). 1974. "No, Woman, No Cry." Natty Dread. Island Records/Tuff Gong.

December 5: Student presentations

REQUIRED ASSIGNMENT:
POWERPOINT presentation file

REQUIRED READING ASSIGNMENT:
none

WE ARE GLOBAL GEORGETOWN!