- Statistics for Social Sciences I and II courses are COMPULSORY, or equivalent that includes the understanding and management of: univariate and multivariate regressions, binomial models, principal component analysis, time series or ARIMA and VAR models. - Research Methods in Social Sciences courses are COMPULSORY, or equivalent that includes: Theoretical background to pose a research question, build the literature review and look for databases, propose a theoretical framework, as well as to establish the causal mechanisms that will lead to the research design. - The student must be able not only to interpret and critically analyze advanced statistical methodologies, but also to choose the right method for its research question and use it for the final research paper to be presented at the end of the course and which will be a significant part of the final grade.

LEARNING OUTCOMES · Ability to analyze, from a pluridisciplinary perspective, the principal aspects of international relations on different levels: aggregate (states, societies and economies), individual, and collectives (organizations, firms, interest groups). · Capacity to recognize and contrast key facts, processes and historical factors and to determine the relationships between the political, social and economic aspects in the societies under study. · Capacity to elaborate with clear and well-reasoned arguments the connections between the different disciplines within established theoretical frameworks. · Capacity to determined, contrast and analyze the social, economic and political determinants of structures and developments in an international environment, and to reflect about

The course is clearly learning by doing oriented, guiding the student to successfully develop a complete Social Sciences research project by its own, as a culmination of a sequence of courses planned in the academic program of the degree. The aim of the course will be to prepare a research study that must be presented at the end of the semester. To that end, having knowledge of advanced statistical analysis techniques is COMPULSORY. At the very beginning of the course sessions the student must choose a research question based on his/her theoretical background that seeks to respond to a real legal, economic, social or political problem. From there, lecture sessions will provide the main tools to face a complete research project process. The seminars that will run in parallel will be based on computer-lab sessions where instructors will guide and provide the necessary resources and knowledge for the development and execution of the entire research process. Therefore, the main goals of the course will therefore try to delve into the following points: -Integration of the necessary and previously acquired theoretical knowledge from the large areas of Social Sciences and Humanities to perform an interdisciplinary analysis of the social, political, legal and economic problems of International Studies. - Identify and discuss the steps of a research logic at the applied level through; first, the study of the existing literature and its results and, secondly, to formulate research questions by the students based on existing theoretical frameworks. Finally, students must be able to implement the correct method strategy to contrast hypotheses with empirical evidence: to seek for information and databases; systematization, analysis and interpretation; presentation and discussion of the results orally and in writing.

Methodology: Learning by doing Critical reading and in-depth analysis of academic papers and official reports from International Organizations. Lectures Lectures oriented to understand, implement and solve problems related to the development of the research process Seminars focused on guiding the student to apply skills and knowledge explained during the lectures into their own research projects Statistical Software: STATA or R (non previous knowledge required) Office hours: By motivated appointment