AY2021 Recruiting Materials for EDP Advanced Seminars
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AY2021 Recruiting Materials for EDP Advanced Seminars
Hajime Tomura’s advanced seminar series This advanced seminar series covers various financial crises across the world after World War II. The teaching materials are case studies written by policy analysts in public institutions and academics. We will go through the chronology of each crisis, and analyze the underlying mechanism using the theories of international economics and finance. You will learn common principles behind financial crises across different countries. This knowledge will be helpful to predict how a financial crisis evolves once it happens in a country in the future. Advanced seminar 1: This course covers banking crises in the U.S., Sweden, and Japan in the 1980s and the 1990s, and also currency crises in Latin American countries, East Asian countries, and Europe since the 1980s. Advanced seminar 2: This course covers the subprime mortgage loan crisis in the U.S. for 2007-2009. In this course, you will learn how the shadow banking system was formed after the early 1990s in the U.S., and how it led to a financial crisis of 2007-2009, which was about to paralyze the whole U.S. financial system. Advanced seminar 3: This course covers Great Depression in the U.S. and Europe in the 1930s. In this course, you will learn political economy behind the international dynamics of Great Depression and the reason why the gold standard failed to stabilize the world economy. Advanced seminar 4: This course is a workshop for thesis writing. In this course, students will present their work in progress toward their theses, and receive constructive feedback from the instructor. For your thesis, you can choose any topic of your interest, if it is somehow related to economics. Thesis: If students choose to write theses under the instructor’s supervision, then they are expected to be registered to the instructor’s advanced seminar 4, where the instructor will give you feedback to your work for a thesis. Students are expected to submit their theses within the same semester as their registration to advanced seminar 4, or in the following semester. Please consult the instructor if you want to be registered to advanced seminar 3 and submit your thesis within the same semester. Even though you can do this if you wish, you will receive less feedback from the instructor to your work for a thesis in this case.
SEMINAR-SEQUENCE SUMMARY VESZTEG Róbert Ferenc
For personal information, visit my page on researchmap.jp or contact me by email.
THE GENERAL IDEA
The main goal in my seminar sequence is to discuss advanced
topics from microeconomics and game theory that typically do not Game
show up in your undergraduate courses, yet they constitute an Theory Microeconomics
important part of modern economics.
My seminars rely on a mix of academic books and journal articles
that o er alternative approaches to the analyzed problems. Formal
models are considered next to empirical and experimental evidence. Experimental
Economics
I believe that seminars o er a unique opportunity for discussion and
practice that help deepening your knowledge.
SOME DETAILS ABOUT EACH SEMINAR
ADVANCED SEMINAR 1 ADVANCED SEMINAR 2
chapters / topics covered chapters / topics covered
•Mathematical matching •The base model
•Social justice •The moral hazard problem
•The Shapley value in •The adverse selection
cooperative games problem
•Analysis of a bankruptcy •Signaling
problem from the Talmud
ADVANCED SEMINAR 3 ADVANCED SEMINAR 4
topics covered chapters / topics covered
In this seminar, we take an • your topics
interdisciplinary approach to • and
discuss and read about • references
• go here
stupidity, and we study how
it matters for individual and In this seminar, we explore
interactive decision-making. topics chosen by students.
YOUR (TYPICAL) TASKS DURING THE SEMINAR SEQUENCE
individual work group work
• read book chapter and/or journal articles • present research papers
• answer discussion questions • solve models and exercises
• discuss research
ANSWERS TO SOME OF YOUR TYPICAL QUESTIONS
• Yes, we will be working with mathematical models.
• No, you won’t get credit for attendance, yet you are required to show up in class.
• No, you don’t necessarily have to write an essay.
• Yes, we can try to change the schedule / topics / references.
• Yes, we can organize joint social activities, including a trip to a seminar house.
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Prof. ASAKO’s Advanced Seminar
Main Topic
This seminar is mainly about political economy (and applied game theory). The
government determines economic policies, and hence, politics significantly affects
the economy. On the other hand, the state of the economy will change the
political behaviors of citizens. This seminar mainly discusses how economy is
related to political institutions.
Advanced Seminar 1: Introduction to Political Economy
There is one very important but unsolved question in economics. Why are some
nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness,
food and famine? Acemoglu and Robinson’s books Why Nations Fail and The
Narrow Corridor conclusively shows that it is man-made political and economic
institutions that underlie economic success (or the lack of it). In the first
semester, we read one of these books and other materials to understand how
economy and politics are related to each other.
Create Your Seminars
Topics in my advanced seminars 2 to 4 will be decided by students in my seminar.
Even though this seminar is mainly about political economy and applied game theory,
students can choose any topic. However, it must be related to analysis on economy
and/or politics using game theory or data. The examples of past seminar topics are
as follows.
✓ game theory in developing economics
✓ game theory in international relations
✓ game theory in comparative politics
✓ economic analysis on autocracy
✓ decision theory/ social choice
✓ behavioral economics and its applications
1Prerequisite?
I require students to take Introduction to Game Theory and Statistics (I and II). I
also strongly recommend you to take Game Theory I and Public Choice. However,
they are not prerequisite, and you can take them along with my seminars.
Thesis
A graduation thesis is not required. It is totally your decision.
About Professor
Yasushi Asako is an associate professor of FPSE at Waseda University. A political
economist, Asako’s work is motivated by the applications of game theory to political
institutions. He has made contributions to the study of electoral promises,
legislative bargaining, and other important topics in political economy. He also works
on theoretical and experimental analysis on bubble economy. After earning a Ph.D.
in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he spent two and a half
years as an economist at the Bank of Japan. Since 2012, he has been teaching in the
English-based degree program of Waseda University’s School of Political Science
and Economics.
2Junko Koeda’s advanced seminars
This seminar examines various empirical facts and analyses used in recent reports from
international financial institutions and fiscal and monetary authorities. The seminar also
covers related theoretical, quantitative, and empirical methods. We choose several
economies to study in each semester. The list of course materials will be provided by the
instructor in the first class. The instructor is supportive of seminar trips and interactions
with other seminars and the details will be decided in each semester.
Advanced Seminar I
Reports and papers:
Students are expected to
Discuss basic statistics and economics in the selected economies (such as Japan,
China, the United States, or other economies of your choice)
Focus on recent issues in the real, monetary, fiscal, and/or external sectors.
Familiarize recent issues in the selected economies.
Quizzes:
Students are required to
Solve introductory/intermediate financial and quantitative quizzes, and explain
her/his answers in class. (The set of quizzes are assigned to each student in
advance.)
Advanced Seminar II
Reports and papers:
Students are expected to
Discuss basic empirical/analytical methods used in examining the selected
economies (such as Japan, China, the United States, or other economies of your
choice)
Focus on recent issues in the real, monetary, fiscal, and/or external sectors.
Familiarize recent issues in the selected economies.
Quizzes:
Students are required to
Solve introductory/intermediate economic and analytical quizzes, and explainher/his answers in class. (The set of quizzes are assigned to each student in
advance.)
Advanced Seminar III
Reports and papers:
Students are expected to
Discuss empirical/analytical methods used in analyzing the selected economies
(such as Japan, China, the United States, or other economies of your choice)
Focus on recent issues in the real, monetary, fiscal, and/or external sectors.
Familiarize recent issues in the selected economies.
Quizzes:
Students are required to
Solve intermediate/advanced financial and quantitative quizzes, and explain
her/his answers in class. (The set of quizzes are assigned to each student
Design an analysis
Instead of solving quizzes, students can choose to design an analysis of their choice.
Advanced Seminar IV
Reports and papers:
Students are expected to
Discuss empirical/analytical methods used in analyzing the selected economies
(such as Japan, China, the United States, or other economies of your choice)
Focus on recent issues in the real, monetary, fiscal, and/or external sectors.
Familiarize recent issues in the selected economies.
Quizzes:
Students are required to
Solve intermediate/advanced economic and analytical quizzes, and explain
her/his answers in class. (The set of quizzes are assigned to each student
Conduct an analysis
Instead of solving quizzes, students can choose to conduct an analysis of their choice.Thesis If students choose to write theses under the instructor’s supervision, they receive feedback from the instructor in advanced seminar 3 or 4, and then submit their theses within the same semester or in the following semester. Please speak to the instructor during advanced seminar 3 or 4 for more details. About the instructor Junko Koeda is an associate professor at Waseda University. She previously held positions as a chief economist at the Ministry of Finance of Japan, an assistant professor at the University of Tokyo, and a staff economist at the International Monetary Fund. She was also a visiting scholar at the Bank of Japan. She has a Ph.D. degree in economics from UCLA and a bachelor's degree from the University of Tokyo. Her areas of specialization are applied macroeconomics and finance, and international finance. She is a committee member of various public meetings, for example, the Advisory Council on Government Debt Management at the Ministry of Finance, Japan. https://sites.google.com/site/junkokoeda/
Professor Chung’s Advanced Seminar
Main Topic
The main theme of this seminar series is PPE (Philosophy, Politics, and Economics.) In
particular, the aim is to learn how to apply formal models (informed by economics, political
science, and game/social choice theory) to answer fundamental normative questions in
political philosophy – such as the grounds for government authority and political legitimacy,
distributive justice, the value of democracy, the nature and justification of liberal rights, etc.
For this purpose, three fourth (3/4) of the seminar series (AS1–AS3) will be devoted to
rigorously learning the basic concepts and models of microeconomic theory, and the last
seminar (AS4) will be devoted to writing a research (thesis) paper that applies a formal
model to a question in political philosophy of the student’s own interests.
Advanced Seminars 1-3 (Formal Modeling):
For AS1 to AS3, we will faithfully follow and use the contents from Martin Osborne and Ariel
Rubinstein’s recent textbook:
Martin J. Osborne & Ariel Rubinstein. (2020). Models in Microeconomic Theory.
Open Book Publishers
A PDF version of the book can be downloaded for free at the following links:
“she” edition: https://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/1171
“he” edition: https://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/1159
Throughout AS1 to AS3, we will alternate between a “Learning Week” and a “Problem
Solving Week,”
For each “Learning Week”, a designated student will give a presentation that explains and
teaches the contents of the chapter for that week. After the “Learning Week”, every student
will be asked to work on each problem at the end of each chapter and submit their answers
by the next class meeting.
The next class meeting will be a “Problem Solving Week,” where each student will take turns
to explain their answers to each question contained in the problem section. The aim is to
solve every problem in textbook.
The plan is to cover Part 1: Individual Behavior in AS1; Part II: Equilibrium in AS2; and Part
III Game Theory in AS3, and thereby complete the textbook by the end of AS3.
1Advanced Seminar 4 (PPE Final Paper/Thesis Writing)
After the end of AS3, the professor will provide a reading list (consisting of books, journal
articles, etc.) organized by broad topics in political philosophy to each seminar participants.
Each student will be asked to choose a topic and start reading the items in the reading list
during the break to figure out what to write for his/her final paper/graduation thesis.
When the semester starts, the students will take turns presenting multiple presentations:
(a) one consisting of a broad literature review of the student’s chosen topic and the main
thesis of the student’s final paper,
(b) one consisting of a sketch of a formal model and its (preliminary) results pertaining
to the student’s project, and
(c) one consisting of the presentation of the student’s final paper/graduation thesis.
The seminar concludes after the student submits a final version of his/her final
paper/graduation thesis revised in the light of comments and suggestions offered by the
professor and other participants.
Is Writing a Thesis Mandatory?
All students will be required to write a final paper to receive a passing grade for AS4.
However, it is up to the student to decide whether or not to use his/her final paper as his/her
graduation thesis to earn credit for the course Thesis [E] 06.
How to Apply for This Seminar?
Please submit your application through the SPSE. In addition, please send an email to
Professor Chung (hunchung1980@gmail.com) that includes: (1) a brief self-introduction
(including one’s major, previous coursework, etc.), and (2) reason/motivation for applying to
the seminar.
About the Professor
Hun Chung is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Political Science and Economics at
Waseda University. He was born and raised in South Korea. He received a B.A. in
Philosophy (Summa Cum Laude) at the Seoul National University in 2006. He received his
M.A and first Ph.D. in Philosophy at Cornell University in 2012 and received his MA. and
second Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Rochester in 2017. He works at the
intersection of Political Philosophy and Game/Social Choice Theory. In short, PPE
(Philosophy, Politics, & Economics).
For more information, please visit Professor Chung’s webpage at: http://hunchung.com
2Overview of Professor Shimokawa’s Advanced Seminars:
Quantitative Methods for Food Policy Analysis
Advanced Seminar I and II
This seminar introduces intermediate econometric methods commonly used
in applied economics with a particular emphasis on food-related problems in
both developed and developing countries. The seminar consists of two parts:
(1) lectures on methods and (2) topical discussions. The topics may include
the political aspects of food security, food price, food aid, food standards, and
food safety.
Advanced Seminar III and IV
The seminar continues to learn intermediate economic theory and econometric
methods to analyze major food-related problems from the perspective of
behavioral and psychological economics. The seminar consists of two parts:
(1) topical discussions and (2) lectures on theory and methods related to the
discussions. Topics are mostly related to food consumption.
Recommended readings:
“Introductory Econometrics: A Modern Approach” by Wooldridge.
“Mastering Metrics: The Path from Cause to Effect” by Angrist & Pischke.
** To learn more about me and my research, please visit my website.
http://www.waseda.jp/prj-foodecon/Advanced seminar series by Willy Jou The theme of this advanced seminar series is political culture – what people think about various aspects of the political system and, very importantly, what they believe they can (or cannot) do in terms of political activities. We focus on the attitudes and behavior of ordinary citizens, and look at examples from different countries. Why do people in some societies trust and cooperate with each other more than in other places? Why are there a lot of protests in some countries but not in, say, Japan? Why do some people care more about the environment while others emphasize economic growth? What’s behind the success of right-wing populists that we often hear about in the news recently? These are the kinds of questions covered in the advanced seminars. Students are expected to take turns summarizing and critiquing assigned articles and book chapters, both as short papers and as class presentations. Students will be asked to write a term paper or answer questions on a take-home exam at the end of each semester. Advanced seminar 1 We begin with the basic question of socialization: where do people's values come from. Are your beliefs influenced by your parents? friends? school? Do these beliefs mostly remain the same over time, or are they liable to change depending on where you are and who you interact with? In the latter half of the seminar, students are introduced to the classic book The Civic Culture by Almond and Verba, which distinguishes three types of political cultures and discusses their relationship with stages of economic development and government system. Advanced seminar 2 Some places seem safe, organized, efficient, where people know and look after each other, while other places are far less appealing. Why? We look at two key explanations: 1) joining voluntary groups and 2) interpersonal trust. These are referred to as ‘social capital.’ Students are asked to read book chapters by Putnam on how social capital makes societies better (e.g. higher economic growth, lower crime), and also articles that question whether the story is really so simple, to make their own judgments.
Advanced seminar 3 For people suffering from starvation, or fleeing a war zone, food and physical survival would be more important than anything else. By contrast, if you never have to worry about these, then your priorities could be quite different. The same applies to societies as a whole: generations who grow up under conditions of peace and prosperity tend to give more emphasis to gender equality, environmental protection, freedom of speech, etc. Students will learn about this theory of ‘post-materialism’, and discuss its implications. Advanced seminar 4 One part of this seminar continues from the theme of value change in the previous semester. Attention now turns to people who are uncomfortable with changes in their societies, specifically how they turn to supporting right-wing populists. For the remainder of the seminar, students are asked to work on a research project. They will jointly design and conduct their own survey, to examine factors that exert an impact on individual attitudes and behavior. Students can pick their own topics, which don't have to be related to politics. Notes All advanced seminars are supposed to be conducted on campus. However, if several students are unable to attend in person due to pandemic-related restrictions, sessions may be moved on-line. If you have any questions and/or would like more information, please write to . Thesis While students are not required to write a thesis, they are welcome to do so during or after advanced seminar 4. Please consult the instructor if you are interested. About the instructor Willy Jou has been an associate professor in the School of Political Science and Economics at Waseda University since 2016. He received a PhD in political science from the University of California, Irvine, and has worked on topics related to political attitudes and behavior. He has published more than two dozen journal articles and co-authored several books.
Kohei’s Advanced Seminar My advanced seminar is all about looking at various issues in the real world through the lens of economic theory. For that I combine the practice of “playing with” theoretical (formal) models and informal discussions. What do I mean by “playing with” models? Well, I would like you to be able to modify an existing model so that it would better fit some real-life phenomenon you want to explain. In other words, you will learn how to build your own model and work out its equilibrium (or equilibria). This is a very different process from problem-solving for courses in economic theory, where a model to be solved is given by a professor. The real-life issues we look at are extremely diverse. The topics past students worked on in the seminar (esp. Advanced Seminars 3 and 4) include: - family finance in Chinese small businesses - economics of cannabis (il)legalization - why are there so many different types of electrical plugs and sockets? - matching mechanism in the job market. By the way, there will be lots of chit-chatting in the course. I am keen to discuss current (economic, political, social and sometimes personal) affairs with students, again, using insights from economic theory, so that students can incorporate solid economic reasoning into their day-to-day thought process. Advanced Seminars 1 and 2 There will be a lot of exercises based on simple game theoretic models, such as prisoner’s dilemma, coordination games, and repeated games. A lot of emphasis will be put on what we can learn from those models students are already familiar with, rather than making them mathematically more challenging. Advanced Seminars 3 and 4 I fully expect my seminar students to graduate with a thesis, and they would start their own projects. The seminar would mainly consist of student presentations and feedback. Outside of class, I organize a dinner/lunch party at least once a semester to interact with students (even more) informally. Many of my students go on to postgraduate programmes in and outside of Japan, and I am always happy to offer information and advice for further studies.
Overview of Professor Kvasov’s Advanced Seminars:
Economics of Equity, Fairness, and Justice
Course Overview:
Study of game-theoretic tool their applications to a variety of issues in
economics and political science
The objectives of the class:
1. Develop problem-solving abilities and critical reasoning;
2. Learn basic coding techniques (Python);
3. Learn how to read, write, and present academic papers;
4. Learn game-theoretic techniques and methodology (stressing applications
to economics and political theory).
Recommended readings in Advanced Seminar I/II:
1. H. Peyton Young (1994). Equity: In Theory and Practice.
2. Herve Moulin (2003). Fair Division and Collective Welfare
3. Herve Moulin (1995). Cooperative Microeconomics: A Game-.theoretic
Introduction.Overview of Professor Ueda’s Advanced Seminars This seminar is intended for students who are seriously considering conducting empirical analysis in the areas of economics or political science (or any other field, for that matter). By the end of the Advanced Seminar series, students should be able to conduct their own research using data, and write a high-quality empirical paper as a thesis. Participants of this seminar must be willing to learn data handling and coding. No prior experience with data analysis or coding is necessary; however, students should demonstrate that they have a clear research agenda/question that they would like to answer with data prior to joining the seminar. In addition, they should be willing to write a thesis. Note: Advanced Seminar 1 covers the basics of data analysis using Python.
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