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Clint BallingerOverview of Teaching Interests

• Explanation in the Social Sciences/Development Theory

• Use Recent Debates in Historical and International Development as Organizing Theme

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4Suitability for Rainfed and Irrigated Cereals

Soil Fertility Constraints

Source: Global Agro-Ecological Zones (GAEZ), 2000 – Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) with the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)

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Source: Center for International Development(CID), Harvard University.

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Voice and Accountability

Government Effectiveness

Regulatory Quality

World Bank‘Governance Matters’

Data

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Corruption Perception Index

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LogGNI

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(trendline and confidence bands at the 99% level) Institutions data from Kaufmann, Kraay and Mastruzzi 2003, Governance Matters III: Governance

Indicators for 1996-2002, World Bank.

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• Covariation between measures of geography and measures of institutions.

• Argue that colonialism is a natural experiment where institutions changed relatively rapidly while geography was held constant.

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• Possibility of reverse causality – Modern wealthy nations may not be rich because have good institutions, but may have good institutions because rich. Use settler mortality as an Instrumental Variable.

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This broad debate is important to teach for three reasons:

1) Geographers should have a much greater role in these debates. They have special skills, background, and knowledge

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2) Many of the these researchers are involved with influential policy making institutions – NBER, UN, IMF, World Bank – views on these debates influence real-world policies

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1) This area of research is an excellent organizing theme for teaching geography. It involves learning both abstract concepts such as

• spatial autocorrelation and regression analysis

• theories of causation • raises issues of geographic

determinism• political and economic theory

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…yet this area of research also involves empirical issues such as

• the impact of water scarcity or disease on development

• colonialism • biogeography • demographic factors

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• My overall teaching goal is to use the broader ‘Geography versus Institutions in Economic Development’ debate to explore these important issues.

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End of Part One

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Society, Geography and Development

• Overall research stimulated by age old geographic question: Why is the spatial distribution of ‘development’ the way it is?

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Abstract –

• geographical determinism• causation in the social sciences • statistical methods

Empirical –

• the concrete situations and mechanisms where disease, water scarcity, or poor soils impact development

• lasting spatial influence of patterns of colonialism on development

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‘A Classification System Based on the International Division of Labor’

Source: Hoeschele, 2003

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World Values Survey

Data

Source: Inglehart,

2000

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Political entities used as units of measurement

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Measurement by Square Kilometer Instead of Political Units

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Myth of Continents: A Critique of MetageographyLewis and Wigen’s Careful Study of World Regions

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Myth of Continents: A Critique of MetageographyLewis and Wigen’s Careful Study of World Regions

33Source: Hoeschele, 2003

34Source: Hoeschele, 2003

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World Values Survey

Data

Source: Inglehart, 2000

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Source: Inglehart

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1. Makes flaws in econometric/comparative development studies much more readily apparent

3. Makes their arguments both easier to learn and to teach

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• Overall, my research strives to show how relatively simple visual methods of data analysis can help in the interpretation of (and highlight problems with) complex debates in development studies.

• I hope to use these methods to explore spatial development studies as well as teach the methods themselves.

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End of Part Two

• (There are some areas of research I started but did not pursue that might make good research projects for undergraduates. One possibility is included below if Q & A time permits)

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