NSF Award Abstract - #0215621

AWSFL008-DS3

EITM Summer Training Institute(Political Science Program: EITM Competition IIIa)

Abstract

The scientific study of politics requires empirical testing of theoretical models, but theories are often produced without adequate testing and empirical work too frequently uses sketchy and oversimplified theory. Gaps have appeared between theory and empirical method, and these gaps impair scientific progress. To ameliorate this scholars need to train a new generation of scholars who can better link theory and empirical work. The Principal Investigators will to foster this intellectual development by offering younger scholars an opportunity to learn by seeing and doing in conjunction with older scholars who have been leaders in advancing theory and empirical work, focusing on substantive areas where appreciable research integrating theory and methods already exists. A successful Empirical Implications of Theoretical Models (EITM) summer program, given the current relative infancy of this approach to social science, must as much develop as disseminate substance. Thus the key regarding training is that each institute include significant teaching and research components, providing students a high degree of individualized interaction with a far wider and deeper array of EITM mentors than are available at any individual institution. The Principal Investigators have activities transcending passive receipt of lecture material, involving also significant opportunities to advance participants' own research by employing their newly gained knowledge about the integration of theory and method. The investigators foster integrated training by providing, in each of the four years from 2002-2005, in four locations (respectively Harvard, Michigan, Duke, and UC-Berkeley), a four-week summer program. Each of these institutes accommodates up to 25 advanced graduate students and junior faculty. The program is selective and admission is based significantly on the quality and potential of research presented. A team of up to 15 research faculty conducts each institute in a framework detailed below. The investigators take a broad view of the theoretical models and empirical methods used to evaluate and test implications. Formal models on which instruction will build include game theory, differential equation dynamic models, and simple decision theory and more complicated behavioral decision-making models. The empirical toolkit should cover not only statistical inference but also focused analytically-based case studies, and experimental methods. Computational models have both theoretical and empirical relevance in the program. Six areas are outlined that have sufficiently matured in combining micro-oriented, institutionally rich theory with rigorous structural estimation to offer fruitful possibilities for integrated instruction. The six areas, with examples of integrated research and teaching outlines, cover spatial models, institutional analysis, macropolitical economy, bargaining and coalitions, international security, and international political economy. The researchers include three such areas each year, and guarantee that there will be at least one repeat for cumulation and development and at least one new module each year. Using multiple hosts capitalizes on diverse, regionally available deep pools of talent unavailable in any single location. It offers regional balance in accessibility and fosters outreach to other departments in several locales. The four have complementary strengths in computational models, experimentation, and macro- and international political economy.