Delivered at:: Department of Demography (Vishnevsky Institute of Demography)

Course type:: Compulsory course

When:: 2 year, 1-4 module

Instructors

Kozlov, Vladimir A.

Abstract

Research Seminar (RS) is a "playground" for academic communication between the students and the staff of the Institute of Demography and Department of Social Sciences, visiting scholars and the staff of other departments at HSE. A guided development of research pa-pers within the seminar environment provides a foundation to shape basic academic skills: critical reading and reviewing, academic writing and ethics, mutual learning, widening of sci-entific specialization, team-working, collaborative implementation of research projects. There-fore, the purpose of the RS is to develop research skills and apply these skills to conduct own research and write the thesis.

Learning Objectives

The aim of the course is to explain students the demographic and social economic aspects of the human development. Within this course the connections between demographic, social economic and political processes are observed as well as their influence on social and human development and possible causal mechanisms. In the first part, we will take a look at the contemporary differences in various development outcomes across nations. Once we realize that these differences were (and indeed had to be) in the making since at least a couple of centuries, and possibly way more, it becomes imperative to turn our attention to possible answers to the two fundamental questions: (1) Why are contemporary societies so much richer than their distant ancestors? (2) Why are some nations so much wealthier than others today? In the second part of the course, we will briefly discuss the history of global economic growth and the history of divergence between rich and poor nations, with particular emphasis on the Industrial Revolution and various hypotheses on its causes. Next, we will consider individual factors of economic development, like geography, human capital and institutions, and analyze how they contribute to economic development and to the observed between-country economic inequality, using both historical and contemporary material. Finally, we will examine topics especially salient for the developing countries, like coping with advantages and challenges of ethnolinguistic and religious diversity; the resource curse issues; the debate on long-run benefits of international development aid.
The objectives of the seminar are: to provide a smooth transition from learning to conducting own research; to guide students in choosing appropriate research directions and topics; to form understanding of professional activity perspectives and possible directions of pro-fessional implementation; to enlighten related research fields; • to deepen understanding of the academic activity: well-organized process of searching and re-viewing theoretical and methodological literature, justifying the goal, research questions, meth-ods, stating the hypotheses, selection of relevant methodology and evaluation of its con-straints; • To develop academic writing skills and text reviewing; • to advance presentation skills for further reporting within thesis defence procedure, con-ference talks or poster-reports; • to enhance skills of analytical work in small groups, group- discussions; • to practice academic discussion, moderation, constructive criticism of others' opinions and pro-vision of extensive written and verbal feedback to one’s assignments; adequate self-evaluation; • to form skills of elaboration and writing of the term paper and qualification thesis – i.e. the de-sign of the structure, the style of presentation, the ways of presenting statistical infor-mation and research results etc.

Expected Learning Outcomes

The students can measure and compare the development
To know the basic principes of economic development, the triggers and traps for development. Understand the examples and formulate the development policy
To know the basic role of population in development, the role of international organizations and the principles of sustainable development goals
To understand the roots and the posibilities of solution for the global problems
The student can find the most suitable methods of research, data sources, develops hypotheses and the ways to test it
The student can organize the predefence of the paper as a public presentation
The student know the basic elements and stages of academic research
the student knows how to ground a policy recommendation, outline of a policy paper
the student knows how to present data or results in visual manner
The student knows how to use and summarize the empirical results of the paper

Course Contents

The concept of sustainable development
Data and empirical results presentation
Introduction. Population growth and development.
Advanced data analysis and empirical results
Ecological factors of development
Research proposal
Indicators of development
Interpretation of results in an academic study
Predefences
Introduction of acedemic research

Assessment Elements

Sources description
Literature review (Presentations)
The presentation is marked
Abstract text
More details in the "Thesis guide"
Research proposal methodology (Written text: 2 parts )
Defense (Oral presentation 10-15 minutes and questions from the jury)
Не является экзаменом
Abstract defense
Methods work
Visualization
Seminar activity
Defense and defense review

Interim Assessment

2020/2021 4th module
0.3 * Defense (Oral presentation 10-15 minutes and questions from the jury) + 0.2 * Research proposal methodology (Written text: 2 parts ) + 0.2 * Literature review (Presentations) + 0.1 * Sources description + 0.2 * Abstract text
2021/2022 1st module
0.7 * Visualization + 0.3 * Seminar activity
2021/2022 4th module
0.05 * Seminar activity + 0.1 * Abstract defense + 0.25 * Methods work + 0.15 * Visualization + 0.45 * Defense and defense review

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

6, P., & Bellamy, C. (2012). Principles of Methodology : Research Design in Social Science. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications Ltd. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=595703
Advanced statistics in research : reading, understanding, and writing up data analysis results, Hatcher, L., 2013
Baker, B. (2011). World Development : An Essential Text. Oxford: New Internationalist. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=420203
Core data analysis : summarization, correlation, and visualization, Mirkin, B., 2019
Daron Acemoglu, & James A. Robinson. (2019). Rents and economic development: the perspective of Why Nations Fail. Public Choice, (1), 13. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-019-00645-z
Data analysis for the social sciences : integtating theory and practice, Bors, D., 2018
Economic development, Todaro, M. P., 2015
Presentation skills for students, Emden van, J., 2004
Research methods : the basics, Walliman, N., 2018
Research proposals : a practical guide, Denscombe, M., 2012
Silvis, C. A. (2015). Presentation Skills : One Hour Workshop. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning PTR. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=910374
Strengths and Limitations of Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods. (2017). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.887088

Recommended Additional Bibliography

Advanced statistical methods for the analysis of large data-sets, , 2012
An introduction to data analysis : qantitative, qualitative and mixed methods, Bergin, T., 2018
Developing a winning grant proposal, Orlich, D. C., 2013
Dinc Mustafa Introduction to Regional Economic Development [Book]. - Cheltenham : Edward Elgar Publishing, 2015.
Haber, R. J., & Lingard, L. A. (2001). Learning Oral Presentation Skills: A Rhetorical Analysis with Pedagogical and Professional Implications. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.E3B18106
Handbook of graph drawing and visualization, , 2014
Methods for Data science. Vol.3: Data visualization and R, Godfrey, J., 2015
Sandoval, I. S. (2016). Understanding Political Science Research Methods: The Challenge of Inference. Political Studies Review, 14(3), 451. https://doi.org/10.1177/1478929916655062
Successful presentation skills, Bradbury, A., 2006
The future of world religions [Elektronische Ressource] : population growth projections, 2010-2050 / Pew Research Center. (2015). Washington/D.C: Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edswao&AN=edswao.449000877
Theobald, T. (2019). Develop Your Presentation Skills : How to Inspire and Inform with Clarity and Confidence (Vol. Fourth edition). London: Kogan Page. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=2175100
V. V. Perskaya. (2019). The World Economic Forum in Davos: Poverty and Inequality of Income Distribution as Evil Phenomena of Modern World Development. Экономика. Налоги. Право, (2), 49. https://doi.org/10.26794/1999-849X-2019-12-2-49-58

Master’s Programme 'Population and Development'

Research Seminar "Population and Development"