Political Economy and Institutions (SoSe 2026)

Veranstaltungszeitplan

Beschreibung

Course Description: This seminar focuses on independent work with empirical research in the political economy of development and institutions. After an initial introductory meeting, students choose one of six thematic areas and, within that area, formulate their own research question. Examples of thematic areas include “Political Polarisation”, “Bureaucracy”, “Democracy Failures: Organised Crime”, “The Economic and Political Legacies of Dictatorship”, “Selection and the Quality of Politicians”, and “Corruption and Political Connections”. Students address their chosen question by systematically reviewing and synthesising published empirical work. A key emphasis of the seminar is on evaluating how credible the empirical evidence is: students are expected to carefully assess research designs, identification strategies, data, and internal and external validity, and to reflect on what the evidence can and cannot tell us about causal effects and mechanisms. In addition, students replicate key results from one core empirical paper closely related to their research question and include a brief replication report in their seminar thesis. Where data and time permit, excellent projects will go beyond pure replication and implement a small extension of the replicated paper (e.g. additional robustness checks, alternative specifications, or simple heterogeneity analysis). Theoretical contributions may be used to motivate hypotheses and mechanisms that are then examined in the empirical literature. The seminar is aimed at Master students who are interested in the intersection of politics and economics and who would like to gain experience working with research papers and empirical methods.

Dozenten

• Professor Dr. Andreas Stegmann (verantwortlich)