The Asia Health Policy Program (AHPP) of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center announces the availability of two 2012–13 pre-doctoral research assistantships in health economics research on evidence-based health policy in East Asia. The assistantships support masters or pre-doctoral students with excellent econometrics skills who are interested in microeconomic analysis of recent health policy reforms in Japan or China. Student research assistants (RAs) will receive salary and tuition allowance for up to 10 units (depending on the time commitment) in the Autumn, Winter, and Spring quarters of the 2012–13 academic year.

Two positions are open until filled. One RA would support research by Jay Bhattacharya and Karen Eggleston on hospital payment reforms in Japan; ability to read and write Japanese would be ideal. A second RA position will support research by Karen Eggleston and Kate Bundorf on maternal and child health in China; knowledge of Chinese would be ideal. Both positions require excellent microeconomics and data analysis skills. We seek a student who is able to start on an hourly basis in July or August 2012 and continue with RA-ship support beginning Autumn quarter.

Applicants should send the following materials to the research assistantship coordinator, Lisa Lee:

• CV
• Description of research interests, previous RA experience, and relevant skills (one page).
• Copy of transcripts.
• One letter of recommendation, sent directly to AHPP.

Deadline for receipt of all materials is July 20, 2012. Please address all materials to:

Lisa Lee
Administrative Associate for AHPP and SEAF

Shorenstein APARC
Stanford University
Encina Hall, Room E301
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

llee888@stanford.edu
(650) 725-2429 (voice)
(650) 723-6530 (fax)

A new account of the Fukushima nuclear disaster revisits events as they took place in March 2011. The report, by Kenji E. Kushida, delves into the politics and institutions of Japan’s energy industry and offers recommendations for reforming it with a view of preventing such a disaster from occurring again.

This year, the U.S. State Department and Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT) established a new exchange program for their diplomats. Kim Hyejin, an IPS 244 student in 2009, is MOFAT's inaugural representative to the program and has been working alongside State Department colleagues in the Washington, D.C. headquarters. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently singled her out for high praise.

Eleven talented Stanford seniors have completed the Undergraduate Senior Honors Program at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) to graduate with honors in democracy, development, and the rule of law. Completing their theses on issues of global importance ranging from the impact of technology on government openness to the effectiveness of democratic governance projects, CDDRL honors students have contributed original research and analysis to policy-relevant topics. They will graduate from Stanford University on June 17.

Over the course of the year-long program, students worked in consultation with CDDRL affiliated faculty members and attended honors research workshops to develop their thesis project. Many traveled abroad to collect data, conduct interviews, and to spend time in the country they were researching. Collectively, their topics documented some of the most pressing issues impacting democracy today in China, Sudan, Greece, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Latin America, and beyond.  

In recognition of their exemplary and original senior theses, Mitul Bhat and John Ryan Mosbacher received the CDDRL Department Best Thesis Award for their research exploring welfare programs in Latin America and the developing oil industry in Uganda, respectively. Otis Reid received the David M. Kennedy Honors Thesis Prize and the Firestone Medal for Excellence, the top prizes for undergraduate social science research, for his thesis on the impact of concentrated ownership on the value of publically traded firms on the Ghana Stock Exchange.

After graduation, several honors students will leave Stanford to pursue careers at McKinsey & Company consulting group, serve as war crime monitors in Cambodia, work at a brand and marketing consultancy in San Francisco, conduct data analysis at a Palo Alto-based technology firm, work at a Boston-based international development finance startup using targeted investment for poverty alleviation, and conduct research in the political science field. The rest will be pursuing advanced and co-terminal degrees at Columbia Journalism School, the University of Chicago, and Stanford University.

A list of the 2012 graduating class of CDDRL Undergraduate Honors students, their theses advisors, and a link to their theses can be found here:

 

Mitul Bhat	Not All Programs are Created Equal: An Exploration of Welfare Programs in Latin America and their Impact on Income Inequality Advisor: Beatriz Magaloni
Shadi Bushra	Linkages Between Youth Pro-Democracy Activists in Sudan and the Prospects for Joint Collective Action Advisor: Larry Diamond
Colin Casey	Waging Peace in Hostile Territory: How Rising Powers and Receding Leadership Constrained US Efforts in Sudan  Advisor: Francis Fukuyama
Nicholas Dugdale	Is Reform Possible at a Time of Political Crisis?: An Assessment of Greece's Efforts to Combat Tax Evasion and Shadow Economy Participation  Advisor: Francis Fukuyama
Daniel Mattes	Nunca Más: Trials and Judicial Capacity in Post-Transitional Argentina  Advisor: Helen Stacy
Hava Mirell	Keeping Diamonds “Kosher”: Re-evaluating the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme in the Wake of Zimbabwe’s Marange Diamond Crisis  Advisor: Kathryn Stoner-Weiss
Jack Mosbacher	Bracing for the Boom: Translating Oil into Development in Uganda  Advisor: Larry Diamond
Jenna Nicholas	21st Century China: Does Civil Society Play a Role in Promoting Reform in China?   Advisors: Francis Fukuyama & Thomas Fingar
Daniel Ong	Beyond the Buzzword: Analyzing the "Government 2.0" Movement of Technologists Around Government  Advisor: Larry Diamond
Annamaria Prati	United Nations Development Programme: An Analysis of the Impact of the Structure on the Efficacy of its Democratic Governance Projects Advisor: Stephen Stedman
Otis Reid	Monitoring, Expropriating, and Interfering: Concentrated Ownership, Government Holdings, and Firm Value on the Ghana Stock Exchange Advisor: Avner Greif

 

 

Ross Feehan has written a very interdisciplinary thesis, spanning the fields of aquaculture production, climate, risk analysis, and ethics. As an Earth Systems major with a strong concentration in religious studies, Ross worked hard to bridge his interests in a piece of work that is relevant to smallholder producers and policymakers in China and in other producing countries. Ross’ thesis is well-written, well-documented, and firmly grounded in several core disciplines of Earth Systems.

Ross analyzed the role of index insurance for extreme weather impacts on aquaculture production in great detail. He used the science to develop a statistical method for evaluating risk and insurance market behavior. He also devoted much effort to designing an ethical approach that incorporated values that he could understand and assess in the context of insurance schemes. His attempt to integrate two major fields of interest from his undergraduate and co-term training at Stanford is laudable. Feehan was advised by FSE director Rosamond L. Naylor.

Thesis abstract

China’s aquaculture industry, which is the largest in the world, is predominantly uninsured. Aquaculture insurance in China remains to be nascent despite previous and ongoing efforts to insure farmers against diseases, natural hazards, and other threats. This study assesses the opportunity for insurance development in China and suggests an aquaculture insurance solution for Hainan Province using quantitative and qualitative analyses. An index insurance program in Hainan Province could utilize typhoon and rainfall measures as proxies for the damages that aquaculture farmers experience. This program could insure farmers across Hainan, though calculations of risk reveal that some of Hainan’s administrative regions are more perilous than others. Risk in Hainan will increase as climate change intensifies. Now, and in the future, aquaculture insurance should assume a greater role in Hainan’s management of natural hazard risk only if insurance and its provisioning abide by both practical and ethical criteria that, inter alia, uphold the value of all creation.