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winter 2019 tips for reading and discussing the cases

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5 views2 pages

winter 2019 tips for reading and discussing the cases

Uploaded by

yujiahuang2022
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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POL

 341:  International  Political  Economy  


Winter  2019  
Prof.  Nelson  
 
A  brief  guide  to  reading  and  discussing  the  China-­‐WTO  accession,  Greek  sovereign  debt  
crisis,  and  Korean  economic  growth  model  cases1  
Reading  a  case  study  for  the  first  time  can  be  a  disorienting  experience.  
Lectures  and  academic  articles  can  be  confusing  or  unclear,  to  be  sure,  but  generally  
their  purpose  is  to  abstract  away  from  the  messiness  of  a  real  life  situation,  episode,  
or  issue  area  in  order  to  make  sense  of  it  for  listeners  and  readers.  
Case  studies  are  an  entirely  different  animal.  Cases  are  assembled  so  that  
they  mimic  the  complicated  decision  environments  in  which  policymakers  and  
businesspeople  find  themselves.  In  complex  real  life  situations,  information  is  far  
from  perfect  (there  can  be  too  much  or  not  enough  of  it),  uncertainty  about  the  
consequences  of  different  courses  of  action  is  significant,  and  the  motives  of  
important  actors  in  the  scenario  are  often  unclear.  It  is  difficult  to  figure  out  what  
should  be  done  in  these  kinds  of  real  life  situations,  and  case  studies  do  not  let  us  off  
the  hook  by  giving  us  obvious  answers  to  problems.    
I  think  cases  can  be  a  little  less  mystifying  if  we  have  a  sense  of  what  we  
should  be  looking  for  as  we  read  them.  Business  case  studies  tend  to  describe  three  
kinds  of  situations.  You  can  see  each  of  these  elements  in  the  four  cases.      
 
• Problems.  Something  important  has  (or  has  not)  happened,  and  we  
don’t  fully  understand  why.  In  the  Greek  case  study,  for  example,  the  
country  seems  to  have  fallen  into  a  serious  debt-­‐related  economic  
crisis.  How  do  we  know  that  Greece  is  in  crisis?  Why  is  Greece  in  a  
crisis?  We  also  want  to  think  about  how  the  problem  looks  from  
different  players’  perspectives.  Why  are  officials  in  other  Eurozone  
countries  worried  about  Greece’s  economic  problems?  Why  are  
bankers  in  France  and  Germany  concerned?  Are  there  disagreements  
about  why  this  crisis  erupted?    
 
• Decisions.  Most  cases  involve  decisions,  and  we  want  to  think  about  
decisions  that  could  be  made  in  order  to  solve  the  problems.  The  cases  
are  complicated,  so  you  will  want  to  think  about  who  has  the  capacity  
to  make  important  decisions.  What  are  the  possible  options  for  these  
decision  makers?  Can,  for  example,  the  Greek  government  
discriminate  between  its  lenders,  paying  some  and  stiffing  others?  
Can  some  options  be  rejected  out  of  hand?  What  are  the  criteria  that  
should  be  used  to  determine  which  options  are  better  and  which  are  
worse?  The  case  studies  contain  some  pieces  of  evidence  that  can  be  
helpful  for  validating  decision  criteria,  but  some  evidence  that  would  

                                                                                                               
1  This  note  draws  from  sections  of  William  Ellet’s  Case  Study  Handbook  (Harvard  

University  Press,  2007).    

  1  
be  useful  might  be  missing.  Returning  to  the  Greek  case,  if  you  think  
that  the  economic  costs  of  default  are  too  large  then  you  will  want  to  
be  able  to  point  to  some  evidence  that  gives  a  sense  of  how  large  those  
costs  might  be.    
 
• Evaluations.  Cases  often  ask  us  to  make  judgments  about  the  value  of  
an  outcome  or  the  effectiveness  of  a  strategy  or  performance.  Some  
decisions  in  this  case  have  already  been  made,  and  you  should  think  
about  whether  these  decisions  were  good  or  bad.  What  are  your  
criteria  for  making  judgments?  How  confident  are  you  in  your  
judgments?  What  would  increase  or  decrease  your  confidence?  For  
example,  if  you  think  the  German  government  was  too  tough  on  
Greece,  what  do  you  know  from  the  case  that  is  consistent  with  
excessive  toughness?  What  information  would  make  you  reevaluate  
the  German  position  on  Greece’s  debt  crisis?    
 
If  you  break  the  cases  into  these  three  issues  –  identifying  the  problem  and  
its  causes,  determining  the  decision  options,  and  thinking  about  your  criteria  for  
evaluating  them  –  the  complicated,  unfamiliar  situations  described  in  the  cases  will  
be  easier  to  grasp,  even  if  you  still  feel  like  there  is  lots  that  you  don’t  know  or  don’t  
understand.  The  purpose  of  the  case  discussion  is  to  focus  on  what  we  do  know  and  
to  work  together  as  a  group  to  make  more  knowledge.    
At  Harvard  Business  School  the  faculty  use  “cold  calling”  (randomly  picking  
people  off  a  list  and  asking  them  questions)  to  jump  start  discussions,  but  I  won’t  
use  that  strategy  unless  no  one  is  willing  to  voluntarily  share  their  thoughts  or  
questions.  We  want  to  know  what  you  think,  and  if  you’ve  read  the  case  you  should  
have  something  to  say  about  some  aspect  of  it.  And  I  can’t  overstate  the  value  of  
asking  the  “obvious”  question  –  which  is  usually  everyone  else’s  question!    
The  enrollment  in  IPE  this  quarter  is  around  80  students,  so  not  everyone  
will  be  able  to  add  a  comment  in  each  of  the  in-­‐class  case  discussions.  However,  
even  if  you  do  not  make  a  comment  in  a  case  discussion,  you  will  have  the  chance  to  
write  a  bit  about  the  case  at  the  end  of  the  discussion  –  and  keep  in  mind  that  
actively  listening  to  the  discussion  does  not  mean  that  you  are  not  participating.  
Relax  (which  does  not  mean  be  complacent  or  listless!),  listen  closely  to  what  others  
have  to  say  about  the  case,  give  their  ideas  your  full  attention,  and  you  might  find  
that  your  mind  has  been  changed  by  a  view  that  you  hadn’t  considered.    

  2  

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