About Me

I am an award-winning teacher with a PhD from the Department of Political Science at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill in international relations and comparative politics. Currently I work as a visiting assistant professor at Furman University where I teach world politics and research methods.

My research examines the politics of globalization, redistribution, and domestic inequality. In the first chapter of my dissertation I examine how agricultural landowners have influenced national education systems in an effort to reduce their labor costs. In the second chapter I investigate how ethnic divisions affect government expenditures on healthcare, education, and pensions. In the third chapter I reassess the causes of income inequality using newly available land inequality data. I am also working on several coauthored projects including projects on the network structure of the international financial system, 19th century US trade politics, and the effect of the exchange rate on income inequality in the US over the last 30 years.

As a teaching assistant I recieved UNC's highest award for undergraduate instruction, the 2010 Tanner Teaching Assistant Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. I was also honored to receive a 2010 Student Undergraduate Teaching and Staff Award (SUTSA) from the undergraduate student body for excellence in undergraduate teaching, creating a dynamic intellectual environment, and positively affecting a broad range of students both inside and outside the classroom.

As a course instructor, I received the John Patrick Hagan Award as the best graduate student instructor in Political Science for teaching Introduction to International Politics. In addition to teaching my own courses, I have also served as a teaching assistant for Introduction to Comparative Politics, Introduction to European Politics, Introduction to American Politics, and Introduction to International Relations. I have also guided undergraduate research projects while serving as an undergraduate research coordinator for U.S. Foreign Policy, Global Production and Workers' Rights, and Constitutional Design.

In the public policy arena, I have work experience on the federal, state and local levels. After completing my M.A., I served as professional, non-partisan committee staff for the North Carolina General Assembly before returning to complete my Ph.D. I have also consulted for the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC) as a cost-benefit analyst. Currently, I serve on the board of the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership, a non-profit dedicated to enhancing the downtown of Chapel Hill.

Education

University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill

Ph.D. in Political Science. (Jan. 2009 - May 2011)

Concentration in International Relations and Comparative Politics.

Committee: Thomas Oatley, Chair. John Stephens, Timothy McKeown, Stephen Gent, Mark Creczenzi.

University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill

M.A. in Political Science; Minor in Public Policy. (May 2007)

Clemson University, Clemson, SC

B.A. with Honors in Mathematics and Political Science. (May 2000)

Professional Experience

Visiting Assistant Professor, Furman University, Greenville, SC (Aug. 2011 – Present)

Fiscal Analyst, Fiscal Research Division, North Carolina General Assembly, Raleigh, NC. (Nov. 07 – Jan. 09)

Served as non-partisan committee staff for the Natural and Economic Resources Appropriations Sub-Committee. Provided budgetary and policy analysis for committee members by analyzing legislative and executive branch proposals.

Senior Researcher, Policy Navigation Group, Fairfax, VA. (Aug. 06 – Nov. 07)

Prepared economic analyses of regulatory changes proposed by the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

Awards

2010 Tanner Teaching Assistant Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching

The University’s highest award for undergraduate teaching. Presented by the Chancellor for excellence in undergraduate instruction at UNC.

2010 Student Undergraduate Teaching and Staff Award (SUTSA)

University-wide award given by the student body for excellence in undergraduate teaching, creating a dynamic intellectual environment, and positively affecting a broad range of students both inside and outside the classroom.

2006 John Patrick Hagen Award

Best graduate student instructor with full course responsibilities in the Political Science Department.

Publications

Pennock, Andrew. 2011. "The Case for Using Policy Writing in Undergraduate Political Science Curricula." PS: Political Science and Politics, Volume 44, Issue 01, pp. 141-146.

Articles Under Review

Revise and Resubmit at Perspectives on Politics with Thomas Oatley, Sarah Bauerle Danzman, and Will Winecoff. "Global Financial Markets, Crises, and Power: A Complex Networks Approach."

Pennock, Andrew. The Politics of Domestic Labor Mobility: Specific Factors, Landowners, and Education. Under Review.

Pennock, Andrew. Explaining Income Inequality: Agricultural Structure and Regional Effects. Under Review.

Works in Progress

“Exchange Rates and the Shifting Employment Landscape: The International Dimension of the Rising American Income Inequality," with Thomas Oatley.

“Diversity and Social Spending”

"U.S. Foreign Economic Policy in the 19th Century," with Thomas Oatley.

“War, Peace, and Transportation: Using Computational Modeling to Explore the Effect of Transportation Technology on War”

Teaching Experience

Research Interests

• International Trade
• Welfare States
• International Order
• Inequality and Redistribution
• Political Determinants of Factor Mobility
• Development and Democratization
• Economic History
• Ethnic Politics
• Computational Modeling

Conference Presentations

Pennock, Andrew, with Thomas Oatley, Sarah Bauerle Danzman, and William K. Winecoff. Global Financial Markets, Crises, and Power: A Complex Networks Approach. Presented at the American Political Science Association’s Annual Meeting. Seattle, WA. September 2011.

Pennock, Andrew. Explaining Income Inequality: Testing Competing Explanations With Land Inequality Data. Presented at the Midwest Political Science Association’s Annual Meeting. Chicago, IL. April 2011.

Pennock, Andrew. Landowners, Labor Mobility, and Education: The Conditional Influence of Land Inequality on Income Inequality via Education. Presented at the Midwest Political Science Association's Annual Meeting. Chicago, IL. April 2010.

Pennock, Andrew. Endogenous Factor Mobility: How Agricultural Landowners Influence Labor Mobility via Education Policy. Presented at the North Carolina Political Science Association's Annual Meeting. Durham, NC. February 2010.

Pennock, Andrew. Ethnicity and Social Spending in the Developed and Developing Worlds. Presented at the Midwest Political Science Association's Annual Meeting. Chicago, IL. April 2009.

Pennock, Andrew. The Case for Using Policy Writing in Undergraduate Political Science Curricula. Presented at the Teaching and Learning Conference of the American Political Science Association. Baltimore, Maryland. February 2009.

Pennock, Andrew. War, Peace, and Transportation: Using Computational Modeling to Explore the Effect of Transportation Technology on War. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association. San Francisco, CA. March 2008.

University Service

Board Member, Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership, Chapel Hill, NC. (May 2009 – June 2011)

Serving as board member for the Partnership, an organization that promotes and represents the downtown community of merchants, residents, and students to the town of Chapel Hill and the larger region.

Chancellor’s Award Committee, Chapel Hill, NC. (May 2010 – May 2011)

Campus wide committee to select 20 award winners for teaching, service, and academic achievement by faculty, staff, and students for the 2010-2011 academic year.

Teaching Liaison, Political Science Department, Chapel Hill, NC. (May 2010 – May 2011)

Elected to mentor other graduate students in teaching through classroom evaluation and feedback, organizing teaching workshops, and interfacing with the Center for Faculty Excellence.

Community Service

Volunteer, St. Joseph’s African Methodist Episcopal Church, Chapel Hill, NC. (February 2010 – August 2011)

Volunteer driver for local food bank.

English as a Second Language Teacher, Professionals International, Sarajevo, Bosnia. (Summer 2003)

Taught business English to Bosnian professionals.

Professional Associations

American Political Science Association

International Studies Association

Midwest Political Science Association

North Carolina Political Science Association

Research Interests

• International Trade
• Welfare States
• International Order
• Inequality and Redistribution
• The Politics of Factor Mobility
• Development and Democratization
• Economic History
• Ethnic Politics
• Computational Modeling

Publications

Pennock, Andrew. 2011. "The Case for Using Policy Writing in Undergraduate Political Science Curricula." PS: Political Science and Politics, Volume 44, Issue 01, pp. 141-146.

Articles Under Review

Revise and Resubmit from Perspectives on Politics with Thomas Oatley, Sarah Bauerle Danzman, and Will Winecoff. "Global Financial Markets, Crises, and Power: A Complex Networks Approach."

Pennock, Andrew. "The Politics of Domestic Labor Mobility: Specific Factors, Landowners, and Education." Under Review.

Pennock, Andrew. "Explaining Income Inequality: Agricultural Structure and Regional Effects." Under Review.

Works in Progress

"U.S. Foreign Economic Policy in the 19th Century," with Thomas Oatley.

“Exchange Rates and the Shifting Employment Landscape: The International Dimension of the Rising American Income Inequality,” with Thomas Oatley.

“Diversity and Social Spending”

“War, Peace, and Transportation: Using Computational Modeling to Explore the Effect of Transportation Technology on War”

Abstracts of Selected Research Projects

The Politics of Domestic Labor Mobility: Specific Factors, Landowners, and Education

Labor mobility, a key determinant of political coalitions, is often assumed to be outside of the control of political forces. This study argues that political actors successfully influence labor mobility via education today just as they have for centuries. Landowners in countries with large industrial sectors attempt to suppress education levels to maintain their labor supply, as educated workers are able to move into industrial work more easily than uneducated workers. Conversely, landowners in countries with little economic development realize the returns of educated workers without fearing their mobility, as industrial opportunities do not exist. In either case, the ability of landowners to achieve their political goals is a function of their ability to overcome the collective action problem and effectively influence government provision of education. Powerful landowners successfully deny education in industrializing countries and provide it in agricultural countries. Using a random-effects model, the analysis confirms this relationship.

Ethnicity and Social Spending in the Developed and Developing Worlds

How does diversity affect social spending? Research into welfare states spending largely ignores or dismisses diversity as an important factor in its account of social spending despite strong evidence that diversity matters at the sub-national level. I argue that diversity does influence social spending but previous research has largely missed this dynamic because of sample problems. Since ethnic diversity is much more homogenous within regions than between them, studies conducted at the regional level are biased against finding a significant effect. Only one prominent study uses a broad sample but it potentially draws biased inferences because it fails to control for globalization, a key explanation of social spending (Alesina and Glaeser 2004). I find that ethnicity’s impact is dependent upon the countries constituting the sample in a given decade. In the 1970s and 1980s the effect of ethnic diversity is curvilinear with ethnic diversity having almost no effect in the most homogeneous and most diverse societies and the largest effect in societies with middle range scores. When the sample expands in the 1990s and 2000s to include primarily homogeneous countries, then I find a negative relationship suggesting that the more diverse a country, the less is spent on social programs.

The Causes of Income Inequality: Land Inequality, Ethnic Diversity and Educational Attainment

Why do Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa have higher income inequality than our models predict? Despite the overall fit of the Kuznets curve, which predicts rising then falling income inequality during industrialization, there is still large unexplained variation. Agricultural inequality might shed light on this puzzle. Standard models of income inequality assume that wages in agriculture are relatively equal. As society industrializes a few workers move from agriculture to manufacturing and receive higher wages, causing inequality to rise. Once the majority of workers work in manufacturing then inequality declines. However, this mechanism only works if agricultural wages are relatively equal. If agricultural inequality is very high then the initial movement of workers into manufacturing may not increase inequality or may actually decrease inequality. I test this hypothesis using a newly released land inequality dataset. Including land inequality increases model fit and reduces the magnitude of regional dummy variables.

War, Peace, and Transportation: Using Computational Modeling to Explore the Effect of Transportation Technology on War

This continuation of my MA thesis research explores the effect of trade density on the breakdown of domestic and international order using computational modeling.

Awards

2010 Tanner Teaching Assistant Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching

The University’s highest award for undergraduate teaching. Presented by the Chancellor for excellence in undergraduate instruction at UNC.

2010 Student Undergraduate Teaching and Staff Award (SUTSA)

University-wide award given by the student body for excellence in undergraduate teaching, creating a dynamic intellectual environment, and positively affecting a broad range of students both inside and outside the classroom.

2006 John Patrick Hagen Award

Best graduate student instructor with full course responsibilities in the Political Science Department.

2005 Future Faculty Fellowship

Competitive fellowship to attend a weeklong intensive course on course development and professional development.

Teaching Interests

International Relations

• Introduction to International Relations
• International Political Economy
• International Organizations
• Foreign Policy
• Security Studies

Comparative Politics

• Introduction to Comparative Politics
• Comparative Welfare States
• Politics of Developing Countries
• European Politics

Public Policy

• Cost-Benefit Analysis
• Policy Analysis

Methods Courses

• Undergraduate Research Methods

University Teaching Experience

Courses Taught: Full course responsibility including syllabus design, lectures, and evaluation.

• Introduction to International Politics (2005, 2009, 2010)
• Introduction to World Politics (2011)
• Introduction to European Politics (2010, 2011)
• Undergraduate Research Methods (2011)

Courses Served as Teaching Assistant

• Introduction to Comparative Politics
• Introduction to European Politics
• Introduction to American Politics
• Introduction to International Relations

Courses Served as Undergraduate Research Coordinator: Responsible for guiding design and implementation of student research projects.

• U.S. Foreign Policy
• Global Production and Workers' Rights
• Constitutional Design

Other Teaching Experience

• Social Science Faculty at the North Carolina Governor's School (2004, 2005)
• English as a Second Language, Sarajevo, Bosnia (2003)

Contact Information

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Andy Pennock
Department of Political Science
Furman University
3300 Poinsett Highway
Greenville, SC 29613