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Crafting Research

Thesis Writing. Crafting Research. Hans H. Tung Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies 03/08/2012. A Few Essentials…. Personal Interest and Qualifications The State of the Field Frontier Issues Theoretical Lacunae Research Design. Tripartite Methodology.

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Crafting Research

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  1. Thesis Writing Crafting Research Hans H. Tung Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies 03/08/2012

  2. A Few Essentials… • Personal Interest and Qualifications • The State of the Field • Frontier Issues • Theoretical Lacunae • Research Design

  3. Tripartite Methodology • Major Advocate: David Laitin (Dept. of Political Science, Stanford University) • “Soak and Poke” • Analytics: • (Causal) Theory • Empirics: • Quantitative (Statistical) Analysis • Qualitative Analysis: Case Studies

  4. Analytics:(Causal)Theory • Theory herein refers to work that • (a) postulates relationships among abstract variables, • (b) has rules of correspondence such that one can map values for a large number of real world cases on each of the variables, and • (c) provides an internally consistent logic that accounts for the causal relationships • Parsimony: Occam’s (or Occham’s) Razor • "Shave off" (do not introduce) unnecessary entities in explanations.

  5. Political Science as an Empirical Science • Causal Inference • Generalization: Law-like regularities • The explanation must be valid across space and time. • Falsification: Popperian View of Science • Empirical Strategy • Qualitative (small-number case studies) • Most-different method • Most-similar method • Quantitative (large-number) • Regression

  6. Most-similar Method • Choose two or more cases that have different results but share most conditions in common. The factor that differs is the cause for the variations in them.

  7. Most-different Method • On the contrary, for this method, choose two or more cases that have the same outcome but share only one condition in common. Since other conditions are all different in these cases, the only one in common is the cause for the outcome.

  8. One Example • Economic Openness (Globalization) and higher Government Social Spending in OECD countries (US, UK, Germany, and Japan, etc.) • Data: The growth of government spending as economy becomes more open • Theory: economic openness risk (prices fluctuated and exchange rates became more unstable) demands for social protection left party victory in elections  new social programs were launched  higher government spending • Empirical Strategy: • Cross-national regression model • Comparative Case Studies

  9. Another Example • Political Economy of China’s Trade Liberlization • Data: China’s Tariff Dispersion • Theory: Special Interest Politics (“Protection for Sale,”Grossman, G.and Helpman, E., 1994. American Economic Review 84(4): 833-850) • Lobbies offer contribution schedules  the government auctions off higher trade protection to industries contribute more. • Empirical Strategy: • Cross-industry regression model • Comparative Case Studies

  10. China’s Tariff Dispersion 1992~1996

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