NSF Award Abstract - #0215573

AWSFL008-DS3

Political Science Program: EITM Competition IIIa: Empirical Implications of
Theoretical Models Summer Institute

Abstract

Beginning in the summer of 2003, four training institutes (2003-2006) on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis will be offered to bridge the divide between formal and empirical analysis. The goal is to advance the study of methods and models and to expand the research community with cutting-edge expertise. Each NSF EITM Summer Institutes is comprised of four one-week seminars --- a basic seminar and three advanced seminars. The instructors and the subjects addressed in the advanced seminars rotate over the four-year period of the program. All seminars are held in the conference rooms of the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy and the departments of political science and economics. Each advanced seminar concerns the relationship between formal models of politics and empirical research methods in a substantive field of political science or political economy. The formal models addressed span game theory, spatial theory, social and public choice theories, general equilibrium models, adaptive learning models, behavioral economic models, and hybrid approaches such as agent-based modeling. Empirical methods include basic and advanced econometric techniques and spatial models. Students attending the NSF EITM Summer Institute also may attend seminars in the summer program of the Center for New Institutional Social Science that will have a complementary schedule. The faculty for the seminars is drawn from Washington University faculty and from faculty from several other universities. The Washington University faculty participating in the NSF EITM Summer Institute include Randall Calvert, John Carey, Lee Epstein, Andrew Martin, Gary Miller, Norman Schofield, Itai Sened, and Steven Smith. The non-Washington University faculty instructors include Charles Cameron, Keith Krehbiel, Kevin Quinn, Thomas Palfrey, and Rick Wilson. Seminar guests include Janet Box-Steffensmeier, Eric Brown, John Ferejohn, Simon Jackman, Rebecca Morton, Keith Poole, and Kenneth Shepsle. 25 student participants will be recruited on a competitive basis. Students will be offered on-campus housing and will be provided travel and lodging subsidies. An EITM committee comprised of Washington University faculty will administer the program.