2022-23 | Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) München, Geschwister Scholl Institute of Political Science
International Political Economy – Principles and Current Topics (BA seminar)
This course introduces students to International Political Economy (IPE) from both theoretical and empirical perspectives, focusing on the relationship between politics and the contemporary world economy. The first part of the course familiarizes students with various theories and methodologies of IPE and discusses diverse approaches for conceptualizing international trade as well as the international monetary and financial system. The second part covers a historical overview on the globalization of trade, money, and finance. Starting with the emergence of a world economy in early capitalism, we look at the British Empire and the Gold Standard as the first era of globalization, the interwar year, the Bretton Woods era, the globalization of trade and finance from the 1970s up until today’s Offshore US-Dollar System. In the third part, we look at current topics relevant to scholars and students of IPE—for instance, the COVID-19 crisis and global supply chain disruptions, asset manager capitalism, and global climate policies. The focus on IPE offers the possibility of learning core concepts in political science using seminal texts and examples from different topics and countries. The discussion of specific cases draws from recent research published in leading journals in the field. This familiarizes students with the IPE perspective in political science and with the methods that constitute the basis for empirical research in the discipline. By the end of the course, students will understand the broad definition of IPE and differentiate between several conceptualizations of it; identify and describe classical explanations and recent debates in IPE; learn to understand how theoretical arguments are structured and tested empirically in IPE research; and hence learn to judge the quality of a theoretical argument and the validity of real-world policy claims.
Introduction to Political Economy (BA seminar)
What is the relation between the economic and political sphere? How can we use economic thinking to understand politics? What role should the state play in the economy? These are some fundamental questions of Political Economy. In this course, students will first be familiarized with the works of foundational thinkers of Political Economy (for example, Adam Smith and his concept of the “invisible hand”; or David Ricardo and his views on social conflict). These works are still relevant to today’s political debates, be it for political liberalism or politics of inequality, and also provide an economic lens to the analysis of political phenomena. In the second part of this course, we focus on theoretical models that allow analysis of political actors as agents on a political market. Seminal works include Anthony Downs’s view on voting behavior and its consequences for party competition, Mancur Olson’s view on group organization, or Elinor Ostroms foundational works on the common goods problem. In sum, this course will allow students to understand how economic concepts can be applied on political science, and how political science questions are relevant for economic outcomes.
Quantitative Forschungsdesigns in Vergleichender Politikwissenschaft und Public Policy (MA Projektseminar)
In diesem Kurs beschäftigen wir uns mit der praktischen Umsetzung von quantitativen Forschungsdesigns in Vergleichender Politikwissenschaft und Public Policy anhand der Programmiersprache R und der Software R Studio. Grundkenntnisse in R oder einer anderen Statistiksoftware sind hilfreich, aber keine zwingende Teilnahmevoraussetzung. Statistikkenntnisse dagegen werden vorausgesetzt. Im ersten Teil des Kurses erarbeiten wir uns die grundlegenden Funktionen von R, Datenimport- und aufbereitung (Wrangling), deskriptive Statistik, Datenvisualisierung und Regressionsanalyse. Im zweiten Teil behandeln wir zentrale statistische Methoden für quantitative Forschungsdesigns in Vergleichender Politikwissenschaft und Public Policy: quantitative Textanalyse, den Instrumentvariablen-Ansatz, Regressions-Diskontinuitäts-Analyse, den Difference-in-Difference-Ansatz und die synthetische Kontrollmethode. Die Studierenden stellen einander die Methoden anhand passender R-Pakete vor und replizieren ausgewählte wissenschaftliche Artikel, die mit diesen Methoden arbeiten. Im dritten Teil stellen die Studierende Projekte vor, in denen sie anhand eines selbst ausgewählten Datensatzes ein eigenes Forschungsdesign entwickeln und die gelernten Methoden anwenden. Insgesamt sollen die im Rahmen des Kurses entwickelten Projekte als Template quantitativer Masterarbeiten in den Bereichen Comparative Politics, Political Behavior und Public Policy dienen können.
2014-19 | University College London (UCL), Department of Economics
I was the teaching assistant for the module “History of Economic Thought” in the academic years 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2018-19. In 2014, I was the teaching assistant for the module “Money and Banking”.
2013-16 | City, University of London, Department of International Politics
I was the teaching assistant for five modules in the B.Sc. programmes on International Politics and International Political Economy: “International Relations Theories”, “Advanced Theories of Global Politics”, “Introduction to Political Economy”, “The Making of the Modern World Economy”, and “Myths and Mysteries in World Politics”.
2015 | Coursera, Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), and Barnard College of Columbia University, New York
I was a teaching assistant for the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) “The Economics of Money and Banking” developed by Prof. Perry Mehrling:
https://www.coursera.org/learn/money-banking