Politics in the World Economy

This seminar is both a critical survey of empirical evidence on foreign aid, trade, and investment and an introduction to modern quantitative research methods used in international political economy. Substantively, the seminar will examine the relationships between economic instruments and human rights, conflict, public opinion, and other topics. It will introduce students to cutting-edge debates in the field. How can the international community best promote human rights? What international factors lead to economic growth? When do countries comply with international laws? When do the economic activities of the international community lead to conflict? More generally, the course will consider the challenges of drawing causal inferences in the field of international political economy.

The seminar will discuss empirical research designs including instrumental variables, field experiments, and regression discontinuity designs. We will read recent scholarship on political economy topics with a critical focus. Students will also produce a research proposal for studying a topic related to political economy, though they do not need to actually conduct this research.