This really is the culmination of a conversation I had with a friend about IR/IPE journals focused on the East Asia-Pacific (EAP) region. At the time, the journal in question was undergoing a bit of a dry period in terms of collecting impactful references to papers published within its pages, and so the question that […]
A primer for identifying quality sources
It’s a bit of a challenge working reference/source identification into teaching.* In too many cases, the expectation appears to be that students will identify appropriate external sources based on what is included in a class’s reading list, with mixed results. I tend to discuss strategies for assessing reference quality with my dissertation students, and introduce […]
Italy-China agreements in the Belt and Road Initiative
Some comments on Italy’s agreements with China as a part of the Belt and Road Initiative in the Wry Ronin.
Brief thoughts on reviewing
One of the more frequent and most underrated activities as an academic is reviewing materials for publication. Training for this at the PhD level is often ignored. One of the interesting aspects of receiving reviews is seeing how others approach the process. Sometimes this is interesting for good reasons (as in, ‘I should do this’) […]
Financial innovation and macroprudential policies
A project with Max Bernier, a former MSc student of mine, was recently (and very speedily) accepted at Research in Economics, after spending a long time awaiting a second reviewer at another journal. We take an aggregate approach to financial innovation, in contrast with most other research (which focuses on distinct methods of innovation), and […]
The OBOR Problem
Over the past few years, China’s One Belt-One Road (OBOR) investment and trade initiative has gained a lot of attention from students, particularly those visiting UCL from China. This seems to be the result of political announcements and media coverage: ‘everyone is talking about it’ is a frequent motivation. This, in itself, is not at […]