Political Economy Research Seminar Jeff Timmons Winter 2010 Dept. of Political Science, ITAM Class: M 4-7 Office Hours: MW 3-4 jtimmons@itam.mx This course examines cutting edge research in political economy. The purpose is to train you in research design and methodology and to help you write a research paper on a topic of your choosing. You will need to formulate a question, develop an argument, specify a research design, collect appropriate data and test your hypotheses. Prerequisites: A previous course in political economy is required. Requirements: Students are expected to do the reading before class and be prepared to discuss it in class. The reading load is heavy at the beginning; it will taper off as the class proceeds. Pay particular attention to weeks with heavier assigned readings and plan accordingly. To encourage reading, the instructor will use pop quizzes, as necessary. The lecture and reading schedule is tailored to fit the structure of the course but may change to accommodate extended or abbreviated coverage of particular topics. Every student is required to write two papers and make three presentations. The first assignment will be a presentation on an academic paper on Mexico, due Feb. 22. The second assignment will be a dataset identification/presentation, due March 22. Both of these assignments may be done in teams of up to two students. The first paper (maximum 10 pages) will be a literature review/research design, due April 5. The second and final paper will be your research project. You may turn in one draft of your final paper for comments anytime between May 4-11 for comments. I will return the drafts to you in less than one week. The final paper must be turned by May 24, 2010. Every student must meet with instructor at least once before Feb. 22. Grades will be determined as follows: 1) Literature Review (20 percent of total grade). 2) In-class participation/class presentations (25 percent of total grade). 3) Pop Quizes (5 percent of total grade); if none given, split between 1&2. 3) Final Paper (50 percent of total grade). Readings All readings should be available online or at Copytodo. * reading are recommended. All others are required. Academic Honesty: Fair and effective education requires academic honesty, and any violation is a very serious matter. Rules about academic honesty will be strictly enforced and any violation will be dealt with according to university procedure. Disclaimer: This syllabus is intended to provide an overview over the course. It will probably be redesigned after week 3, to take into account your research interests.
January 11. Intro No readings. January 18. Research Design I: Randomization & the Scientific Method Przeworski, A. (2005). Is the science of Comparative Politics Possible. Manuscript. Helsen, W. et. al. (2005). The relative age effect in youth soccer across Europe, Journal of Sports Sciences, Vol. 23(6):629-636. Finan F. and C. Ferraz (2007). Exposing Corrupt Politicians: The Effect of Brazil s Publicly Released Audits on Electoral Outcomes, forthcoming, Quarterly Journal of Economics. *Rodrik, D. 2008. The New Development Economics: We shall Experiment, but how shall we learn, Harvard University Working Paper. *Duflo, E. R. Glennerster and M. Kremer (2007). Using Randomization in Development Economics Research: A Toolkit, Center for Economic Polity WP 6059, esp. pp: 1-19 & 66-75. January 25. Research Design II: Non Randomized Treatments & Selection Jensen, R. and E. Oster (2007). The Power of TV: Cable Television and Women's Status in India, NBER Working Paper#13305. Diaz-Cayeros, A. et. al. 2006. Buying-off the Poor: Effects of Targeted Benefits in the 2006 Presidential Race, manuscript. RST (2009). Lobbying and Taxes, AJPS. Fisman, R and E. Miguel (2007). Cultures of Corruption: Evidence From Diplomatic Parking Tickets, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 115(6):1020-1048. *Diaz, J.J. and S. Handa (2006). An assessment of propensity score matching as a nonexperimental impact estimator, Journal of Human Resources Vol. 41(2):319-345. *Buddlemeyer, H. and E. Skoufias (2003). An Evaluation of the performance of Regression Discontinuity Design on Progresa, manuscript. *Meyer, B.D. (1995). Natural and quasi-experiments in economics, Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, 13 (2). 151-161. February 1. No class. ITAM holiday. Feb. 8: Research Design III: Instruments & Identification Angrist, Joshua and Alan Krueger (2001). Instrumental Variables and the Search for Identification: From Supply and Demand to Natural Experiments, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 15 (4):69-87. Miguel, E., S. Satyanath and E. Sergenti (2004). Economic Shocks and Civil Conflict: An Instrumental Variables Approach, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 112(4): 725-753. Jensen, N. and G. Rosas (2007). Foreign Direct Investment and Income Inequality in Mexico, 1990-2000. International Organization Vol. (Summer):467-87.
Acemoglu, D., S. Johnson, and J. A. Robinson. (2001) The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation, American Economic Review, XCI, 1369 1401. *Banerjee, A. and L. Iyer (2002). The legacy of Colonial Land Tenure Systems in India, Manuscipt. *Fernández, R. (2009). Women s Rights and Development, NBER working paper#15355. You Should Have Topic by now! February 15: Research Design IV: Measurement & Qualitative Designs Thelen, K. (2006). Institutions and Social Change: The Evolution of Vocational Training in Germany, unpublished manuscript. Steinmo, S. (1989). Political Institutions & Tax Policy in the United States, Sweden, & Britain, World Politics, Vol. 41(July 1989), 500-535. Munck, G. (2003). Measures of Democracy, Governance and Rule of Law: An Overview of Cross-National Data Sets, manuscript. Casper, G. and C. Tufis. 2002. Correlation versus Interchangeability: The Limited Robustness of Empirical Findings on Democracy using Highly Correlated Datasets, Political Analysis, 11(2):1-12. *Leeson, P (2007). An-arrgh-chy: The Law and Economics of Pirate Organization, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 115 (6):1049-94. February 22: Mexico Paper presentations Team presentations of refereed articles about Mexico. You must circulate papers beforehand & you must hand instructor 1-2 page analysis of the chosen paper. You must meet with instructor before Feb.22 to discuss project. March 1: Research Design V: Mexico Trejo, Guillermo (2009). Religious competition and ethnic mobilization in Latin America: Why the Catholic Church promotes Indigenous Movements in Mexico, American Political Science Review Vol. 103(3):323-342. G. King et. al. 2007. A `Politically Robust' Experimental Design for Public Policy Evaluation, with Application to the Mexican Universal Health Insurance Program, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 26(3): 479-506. *K. Imai et. al. 2009. The Essential Role of Pair Matching in Cluster-Randomized Experiments, with Application to the Mexican Universal Health Insurance, Evaluation Statistical Science 24(1): 29-53 and 65-72. You Must Have Topic by now! March 8: Inequality
Goldin, C. & L. Katz. 2008. The Race between Education and Technology: The Evolution of US Educational Wage Differentials, 1890-2005, NBER Working Paper 12984. Rosen, S. 1981. The Economics of Superstars, American Economic Review 71(4):845-58. Kenneth L. Sokoloff and Stanley L. Engerman. 2000. History Lessons: Institutions, Factor Endowments, and Paths of Development in the New World, Journal of Economic Perspectives 14(3):217 232. Piketty, T. and E. Saez. 2006. The Evolution of Top Incomes: A Historical and International Perspective, American Economic Review 92(2):200-205. Scheve, K. and D. Stasavage. Forthcoming. Institutions, Partisanship, and Inequality in the Long Run, World Politics. *Levy, F. & P. Temin. 2007. Inequality and Institutions in 20th Century America, NBER Working Paper 13106. *Wallerstein, Michael. 1999. Wage-Setting Institutions and Pay Inequality in Advanced Industrial Societies, American Journal of Political Science 43(3):649-80. *D. Devroye & R. Freeman. 2001. Does Inequality in Skills Explain Inequality in Earnings Across Advanced Countries, NBER working paper 8140. *Roberto Perotti. 1996. Growth, Income Distribution, and Democracy: What the Data Say, Journal of Economic Growth, Vol. 1, pp. 149-187. *Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson & James Robinson. 2002. Reversal of Fortune: Geography and Institutions in the Making of the Modern World Income Distribution Quarterly Journal of Economics 117:1231-1294. March 15: No class. ITAM holiday. March 22: Datasets for Mexico Team presentations of datasets/sources for Mexico. You must prepare brief analysis of at least one dataset. March 29: No class. ITAM holiday. April 5: Trade (readings will be finalized later) Lit. Review Due! A.Adsera & C. Boix. 2002. The Political Economy of Trade and Economic Integration: A Review Essay, unpublished working paper, University of Chicago. M. Hiscox. 2001. Class Versus Industry Cleavages: Inter-Industry Factor Mobility and the Politics of Trade, International Organization, Vol. 55, No. 1 (Winter), pp. 1-46. K. Scheve & Matthew Slaughter. 1998. What Determines Individual Trade Policy Preferences, NBER Working Paper 6531. M. Hiscox. 2002. Commerce, Coalitions, and Factor Mobility: Evidence from Congressional Votes on Trade Legislation, American Political Science Review 96:4 (Sept), 21-40. Kono, D. 2006. Optimal Obfuscation: Democracy and Trade Policy Transparency, American Political Science Review 100(April):369-384.
*A. Baker. 2003. "Why is Trade Reform so Popular in Latin America? A Consumption- Based Theory of Trade Policy Preferences. World Politics 55(3): 423-455 (2003). *R. Rogowski. 1987. Political Cleavages and Changing Exposure to Trade, American Political Science Review, Vol. 81, Vol. 4, pp.1121-1137. *M. Hiscox. 1999. The Magic Bullet: The RTAA, Institutional Reform, and Trade Liberalization, International Organization, Vol. 53, No. 4 (Winter), pp. 669-698. *H. Milner. 2005. Why the Move to Free Trade? Democracy and Trade Policy in the Developing Countries, International Organization, 59(1). *Alt et. al. 1996. The Political Economy of International Trade: Enduring Puzzles and an Agenda for Inquiry Comparative Political Studies Vol. 29(6):689-717. April 12: Working with data I Aiken, Chris. ND. Good specifications, mimeo. *Holland, P. (1986). Statistics and Causal Inference, Journal of the American Statistical Association, 81 (396). 945-960. April 19: Working with data II Readings TBA April 26: Working with data III Reading TBA May 3: Working with data IV May 10: No class. ITAM holiday. Final Presentations to be given during first week of finals! May 24: Paper Due