SS25:Methodological Questions of Chinese Economic Research
الخطوط العريضة للقسم
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Course Info
- Instructors: Dr. Ilker Gündoğan, Benedikt Lasar
- Time: Wednesday, 14:00 to 16:00
- Room: 2.006 (Z6)
The goal of this module is to answer some of the most pressing methodological questions of economic and business research in and on China. The class is based on the analysis of relevant theoretical and empirical literature. Studying essential readings will help students build a foundation of knowledge that can be applied over the course of their studies.
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Introduction and Seminar Organisation
Today, we will discuss the upcoming semester and the course contents.
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Starting a research project
In our first session, we will start talking about how to start a research project. This includes
- Finding a topic
- Developing a research question
- Choosing a theory
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Miriam Sweeney, 'How to read for grad school' (20 June 2012). Available at: https://miriamsweeney.net/2012/06/20/readforgradschool/.
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In our second session, we will continue to talk about how to start a research project, but we will focus on how to structure your paper or thesis. In line with the structure of your work, you should 'connect the dots' between methodologies, theories and methods in your research project.
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Economic theory and China: Challenges and opportunities
In this session we discuss how research on China's economy and (standard) economic theory go together. We ask how China's economic rise has challenged economic theory, whether we need a new set of theories for the Chinese case, and what economists can learn from China.
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Doris Fischer. 2017. 'Perspectives for economic research on China', ASIEN 144 (July 2017): 58-69.
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Excerpt and translation of chapter 8 '中国经济学的过去、现在和未来 [The Past, Present, and Future of Chinese Economics]' of Yao Yang (2023), 经济学的意义 [The Meaning of Economics].
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Gary H. Jefferson, 'How has China's economic emergence contributed to the field of economics?', Comparative Economic Studies 50 (2008): 167-209). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/ces.2008.14.
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Jay B. Barney and Zhang Shujun. 'The future of Chinese management research', Management and Organization Review 5, no. 1 (2009): 15-28. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-8784.2008.00102.x.
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What do laws and regulations really tell us?
The government documents with the prominent red stamp are a well-known characteristic of the Chinese political system—so much so that scholar Zhang Xuebo (张学博) coined the term 'governance by document' (文件治国). However, their use remains understudied. Especially the distinction between documents with de jure and de facto force of law is interesting. In this session, we will analyse the different kinds of documents in the Chinese system, and what we can learn from them.
What can we learn from reading the People's Daily?
Pekingology (or China Watching) is the art of studying the Chinese political system from afar. A remnant of the Cold War, recent political shift have made China Watching more important again. In this session we will discuss waht we can learn by reading relevant CPC publications.
- Readings: There are three essential readings this week. Essential reading 1 talks about research on China in the 'New Era'. This paper will be central to today's class. Essential reading 2 is an article on the 'rule of document' in China. The original is in Chinese, so please, if you are able to, read the original text. For everyone else there is a translation available. Essential reading 3 discusses discourse research in China.
- Focus of the week: Politics, state and governance, CCP ideology
- Method of the week: Content analysis, discourse analysis, thematic analysis
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Charles Parton. 'China watching in the "New Era": A guide'. Council on Geostrategy Explainer No. GPE05. Available at: https://www.geostrategy.org.uk/research/china-watching-in-the-new-era-a-guide/.
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Zhang Xuebo (张学博), 'Observations on the history of the rule of document: 1982-2017' (文件治国的历史观察：1982-2017). Academics (学术界) 232, no. 9 (2017): 224-231.
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Annotated translation of Zhang Xuebo's article '文件治国的历史观察：1982—2017' on David Cowhig's Blog. Available at: https://gaodawei.wordpress.com/2021/01/09/2017-zhang-xuebo-observations-on-the-history-of-rule-by-document-1982-2017/.
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Björn Alpermann and Franziska Fröhlich, 'Doing discourse analysis in Chinese studies: Methodological reflections on the basis of studying green consumption and population policy', ASIEN 154/155 (January/April 2020): 111-128.
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Statistical analysis: how can we prove our assumptions about economics, politics, and society?
In this session, we will learn how to prove our assumptions statistically. This will be a basic introduction to what we can do with statistics and how to apply it to our work. We will explore how regression equations and data sets are built and how to use Excel to do basic regressions.
Remember to install the Excel 'Analysis ToolPak' add-in. Follow the instruction on the Pekingology slides.
- Readings: Recommended reading 1 discusses available data for studying the income distribution in China, but the insights are also relevant to other areas of inquiry. Recommended reading 2 talks about survey research on Chinese politics, but the conclusions can be applied to other survey research on different topics as well.
- Focus of the week: Statistics, data sets, regression analysis
- Method of the week: Statistical analysis
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Björn Gustafsson, LI Shi, and SATO Hiroshi, 'Data for studying earnings the distribution of household income and poverty in China', China Economic Review 30 (2014): 419-431. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chieco.2014.05.012.
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Melanie Manion, 'A survey of survey research on Chinese politics: What have we learned?'. In Contemporary Chinese Politics: New Sources, Methods and Field Strategies, edited by Allen Carlson, Kenneth Lieberthal, Mary E. Gallagher and Melanie Manion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010).
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Academic Writing 3: Writing a method chapter
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- Submission deadline: 28 June 2025, 23:59
- Submit a single PDF file.
- Include your name in both the file name and the text.
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- Submission deadline: 7 September 2025, 23:59
- Submit a single PDF file.
- Include your name in both the file name and the text.
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