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9/5 | 9/12 | 9/19
| 9/26 | 10/3 | 10/10
| 10/17 | 10/24 | 10/31
| 11/7 | 11/14 | 11/21
| 11/28 | 12/5 | 12/12
| 12/17
September 5th:
Introduction to social science and discussion of history's place in the
social sciences.
Readings:
- The Measure of Reality: Quantification and Western Society
by Alfred Crosby
- Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences by Jon Elster
- Which Road to the Past? by Robert Fogel and G. R. Elton.
(Try to read all of these but at a minimum read Elster's
Nuts and Bolts and the Fogel's half of Which Road.)
September 12th: Applying
social science reasoning to the past (Part I):
- Social psychology and the Holocaust - discussion of Stanley Milgram
film "Obedience" and Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning
- The institutional approach to economic history. Required
reading: The Rise of the Western World: A New Economic
History by Douglass C. North and Robert Paul Thomas.
- Research methods workshop: Library and archival research.
September 19th: Applying social
science reasoning to the past (Part II):
Twentieth century economic history: The debate over Britain's post-war
economic decline
Required reading:
- The British Economy Since 1945: Engaging with the Debate
by Roger Middleton.
Rational choice and the Nazi voter:
Required reading:
Libraray research assignment due.
(Optional study:
- History by Numbers: An Introduction to Quantitative Approaches
by P. Hudson.)
September 26: Introduction
to economics (Part I):
Required readings:
- "Economics as a Social Science" by K.E. Boulding
- Economics by D.C. Colander, Ch. 1; Economics as a Science
of Human Behaviour, by Bruno S. Frey, Ch. 1
- Econometrics by D.Gujarati, Ch. 1-3
- "Employer Costs and Discrimination: The Case of Baseball"
(Journal of Political Economy, v.82, 1974) by J. Gwartney
and C. Haworth.
(The foregoing will either be handouts or on the web)
Additional reading:
- The Economist's View of the World: Government, Markets,
and Public Policy by Steven E. Rhoads.
STATA/data presentation lesson (Marta Noguer).
Data Set File: .dta
download | .zip download | Dataset1.html
History 5-8 page essay due.
October 3: Introduction
to economics (Part II):
- Colander, Ch. 2, 3;
- Principles
of Economics by N.G. Mankiw, Ch. 2,3
Published by South Western Thomson Learning, formerly Harcourt College
Publishers
Economics written assignment 1 due.
October 10: Introduction
to economics (Part III):
- Colander, Ch. 4,5; QMSS Text Book, Ch. 3; "Federal Reserve Information
and the Behavior of Interest Rates" by C. Romer and D. Romer
- "The International Linkage of Real Interest Rates" (Journal
of International Money and Finance, 1986) by R. Cumby and F. Mishkin;
Gujarati, Ch. 21. (The foregoing will either be handouts or on
the web).
Economics written assignment 2 due.
October 17: Introduction
to Sociology (Part I):
Guest Lecturer: Prof. Michael Sobel. Neighborhood Effects.
Required reading:
Economics written assignment 3 due.
October 24: Introduction
to Sociology (Part II):
Theory Formulation and Model Building in Sociology.
Required Readings:
- Constructing Social Theories (Ch.1-3) by Arthur Stinchcombe;
QMSS Text Book (Ch. IV sec.1).
An example of model building in sociology. Models of
outbreaks of racial violence in the 1960s
Required Readings:
October 31: Introduction
to Sociology (Part III):
Guest Lecturer: Jon Elster. Rational Choice Theory.
Required readings:
- Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences by Jon Elster.
Optional readings:
- Rational Choice by Jon Elster (ed.): Ch. 1, 3, 4.
Rational Choice in Sociology:
Required Readings:
- Sociological Rational Choice by Douglas D. Heckathorn in Handbook
of social theory (ch. 21). Part 1
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- Social Theory, Social Research and a Theory of Action by James
S. Coleman American
Journal of Sociology
(May, 1986).
- A Rational Choice Perspective on Economic Sociology by James
S. Coleman in The Handbook of economic sociology (ch. 7)
Optional Reading:
- Rational Choice and Exchange in Sociological theory (ch. 21)
by Bert N. Adam
November 7: Introduction
to Political Science: Guest Lecturer: Charles Cameron.
Required readings:
- ³Political Science: The Discipline² by Robert Goodin and Hans-Dieter
Klingermann in A New Handbook of Politiclal Science, Goodin and
Klingermann (eds.)
- ³The Economic Theory of Regulation² by George Stigler in Chicago
Studies of Political Economy, George Stigler (ed.)
- ³Political Parties and the Supply Side of the Economy: The Provision
of Physical and Human Capital in Advanced Economies, 1960-90² (American
Journal of Political Science, v.41, No.3) by Charles Boix (available
at www.jstor.org ).
Sociology 5-8 page essay due.
November 14: Research Methods
in Political Science:
Reading Regressions and Accessing Data. (Noah Kaplan).
Required Readings:
November 21: (Noah Kaplan¹s
research interest Title?)
Required Readings:
- ³A Theory of the Calculus of Voting² (American Political
Science Review v.62, No.1, March 1968) by William Riker and Peter
Ordeshook
- ³Rational Choice and Turnout² (American Journal of Political Science
v.37, No.1, February 1993); ³Episodic Voting: The Logic of Electoral
Participation in the Context of Multiple Elections² by Noah Kaplan (available
at the bottom of www.columbia.edu/~noah/indexp.html
)
November 28: Introduction
to Psychology.
Political Science 5-8 page essay due.
December 5: Guest Lecturer:
Elke Weber.
December 12: Research Methods
in Psychology (Jasia Pietrzak)
December 17: (No class
meeting)
Psychology 5-8 page essay due.
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