UROP Research Mentor Project Submission Portal: Submission #673

Submission information
Submission Number: 673
Submission ID: 13981
Submission UUID: 71800f9a-23fd-4b4d-88da-3f558674f2af

Created: Thu, 06/27/2024 - 01:38 PM
Completed: Thu, 06/27/2024 - 01:38 PM
Changed: Thu, 06/27/2024 - 01:38 PM

Remote IP address: 104.28.92.148
Submitted by: Anonymous
Language: English

Is draft: No
Primary Research Mentor Name Chris Gahagan
Research Mentor Preferred Pronouns he/him
When potential research assistants are reaching out via email, what is your preferred honorific?
Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated) cgahagan@fsu.edu
Position Title Graduate Student
Faculty Advisor Name Sean Ehrlich
Faculty Advisor's FSU Email sehrlich@fsu.edu
FSU College (if applicable) Social Sciences and Public Policy
FSU Department or Non-FSU Organization Affiliation Political Science
Headshot (optional)
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from above)
Research Assistant Supervisor Preferred Pronouns
Research Assistant Supervisor Preferred Honorific?
Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated)
Name of Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) (if applicable)
Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) Preferred Pronouns
Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) Preferred Honorific?
Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated)
Title of the Project Can Trade Liberalization Reduce the Size of the Informal Economy?
Project Keywords Trade, labor, international agreements, economics, human rights
Are you currently looking for research assistants? Yes
Number of Research Assistants Needed 1
Relevant Research Assistant Major(s) Prefer Political Science majors
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
If the project location is off campus, does the research assistant(s) need to provide their own transportation?
Please select the choice that most accurately describes your expectations for the research assistant(s): In-person
Approximately how many hours a week would the research assistant(s) need to work? 5-10
Roughly what time frame do you expect research assistant(s) to work? Flexible schedule (Combination of business and outside of business. TBD between student and research mentor.)
Overall Research Project Description This project investigates if trade agreements with labor protections reduces economic informality compared to trade agreements that do not have labor protections. Specifically, this project will include a time-series cross-sectional analysis of trade agreements on the size of the informal economy for a global sample of countries and free trade agreements.

The informal economy is surprisingly large, consisting of 61% of the global workforce and comprising over 2 billion individuals. Informal work often includes dangerous and low paying jobs, and is known to increase inequality and hurt sustainable development. Previously, trade agreements were thought to increase informal employment due to a lack of protections for workers, and a "race-to-the-bottom" approach that firms employed to stay competitive. However, starting with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), labor protections started to be explicitly entered into trade agreements, with the goal of protecting worker's rights in both developed and developing countries. This project aims to see whether these new trade agreements have successfully protected labor rights, with the observable implication being a reduction in the size of the informal economy.
Research Tasks Tasks include literature reviews as well as qualitative and quantitative data collection. Qualitative data collection includes investigating individual trade agreements to see what (if any) enforcement mechanisms are present to protect labor rights. Additionally, reading labor and trade agreement reports from IOs such as the International labor organization (ILO), and NGOs such as Human Rights Watch or Amnesty international will be necessary. Quantitative data collection will involve help creating a trade agreement dataset with and without labor protections, as well as data on the informal economy. If a student is comfortable, minor data analysis may be done, but not necessary.
Skills that research assistant(s) may need: required skills:
- able to read through complex agreements and pick out important facts and information
- use of search engines and google scholar to find academic articles and read reports from IOs and NGOs.
- basic data entry such as in Microsoft excel

Recommended skills:
- knowledge of the R programming software/language
- some background in international relations, political economy, economics, and human rights
- very minor data analysis
Mentoring Philosophy My philosophy is to provide my mentees with the tools they need to succeed and be there for any questions they may have along the way. I view this as a collaborative experience and want to make sure my mentee can take the knowledge acquired here and apply it in many different aspects of their lives. Although this will be a collaborative project, I do expect mentees to take ownership and pride in their work. We will work as a team and not through a hierarchical structure. I encourage mentees to be open about their ideas, how they think they might improve the project, or to share their unique perspectives along the way. Importantly, I want my mentees to know that it is okay to fail. We only learn when we fail, and the goal of this project will be to help students get a taste of an original research project with real-world impacts. I do not expect mentees to have much research experience when they join, so I am aware there will be a learning curve in the process. However, when we are finished, I believe the mentees will be able to confidently present their findings during the UROP poster session and use their newfound knowledge in their future endeavors.
Please provide a link to your publications, a video clip, or a website for your research project (if applicable):
Please add any additional information here (if applicable):
Mentor Handbook, FAQs, and Communication Yes
UROP Performance Evaluation Yes
Materials Grant Yes
UROP Poster Presentation Yes
Faculty Advisor Confirmation Yes
Are you interested in attending in a UROP Research Mentor Workshop Series? Yes
Year 2024
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