Doing Research

How to Choose a Topic of Research?
If you are undecided about your research topic, you may do the following steps:

1-Make up your mind for any of the broader areas in economics, such as economic growth, international trade, international finance, monetary economics, public sector economics, labor economics, development economics, environmental economics and financial economics etc. For this purpose, you may think about your favorite subjects in your MS/PhD coursework or you may talk to your teachers.

2-Visit the websites of relevant journals. For example, if you choose financial economics then the relevant journals may be Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Finance, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Money Credit and Banking etc. For general topics, you may browse Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Review, Journal of Economic Perspectives, The Economic Journal, Journal of Economic Surveys, Quantitative Journal of Economics, European Economic Review, World Bank Economic Review, Economic Inquiry, Empirical Economics, and Journal of Development Economics etc.     

3-Browse titles published in the last ten years, starting from the latest one. Select 3-5 titles of your interest, keeping in mind their currency and relevance to your country or scope of study.

4-Read the Abstract, Introduction, and conclusion of your selected articles. Narrow down your selection to one or two articles. Prefer those articles which give some hints about the future areas of research. Usually, you can find it in the conclusion section. At this stage, you may talk to your seniors or teachers to get their opinion. It is always good to have others' opinion but, decision must be solely your's. 

5-Finally, you'll come up with a KEY article and your research is likely to revolve around it. Read your selected article in detail, focusing on the issue, data, estimation methods, findings and future directions (if any). You may present it to your fellows or supervisor (if you've any). Keep in mind the availability of data.

How to Write a Research Proposal?

Matthew McGranaghan from Hawaii has written excellent guidelines and templates for writing a research proposal. His link is given as under:

http://www2.hawaii.edu/~matt/proposal.html

Further, you can find very useful material from Dr Asad Zaman's websites. Main link is given as under:


http://asadzaman.net/my-google-websites/

Data Sources

After defending your research proposal, you need to collect and organize data for your analysis. The data may be primary or secondary. The primary data can be collected through interviews, questionnaires or observation etc. (I'll construct a separate page for it). However, most of the secondary or published data can be found from the following sources:

World Development Indicators (WDI), The World Bank

The primary World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially-recognized international sources. It presents the most current and accurate global development data available, and includes national, regional and global estimates.

International Financial Statistics (IFS), IMF

You can find data on all aspects of international and domestic finance, with history to 1948. For example, directions of trade, balance pf payments, government finance statistics etc.

A New Database on Financial Development and Structure, The World Bank

This dataset is constructed by Thorsten Beck , Asli Demirguc-Kunt , Ross Eric Levine , Martin Cihak  and Erik H.B. Feyen. This database of indicators of financial development and structure across countries and over time includes a range of indicators (31 indicators in total), starting from 1960, that measure the size, activity, and efficiency of financial intermediaries and markets.

The compiled data permits the construction of financial structure indicators to measure whether, for example, a country's banks are larger, more active, and more efficient than its stock markets. These indicators can then be used to investigate the empirical link between the legal, regulatory, and policy environment and indicators of financial structure. They can also be used to analyze the implications of financial structure for economic growth.

Penn World Tables (PWT)

The Penn World Table (PWT) displays a set of national accounts economic time series covering many countries. Its expenditure entries are denominated in a common set of prices in a common currency so that real quantity comparisons can be made, both between countries and over time. It also provides information about relative prices within and between countries, as well as demographic data and capital stock estimates. Since the regionalization of the ICP beginning with the 1980 benchmark, Summers and Heston at Penn have been using ICP benchmark comparisons as a basis for estimating PPPs for non-benchmark countries and extrapolations backward and forward in time. These are the major components of Penn World Tables or PWT.

World Income Inequality Database, UNU-WIDER

The UNU-WIDER World Income Inequality Database (WIID) collects and stores information on income inequality for developed, developing, and transition countries. The database and its documentation are available on this website.

Barro-Lee Data on Education Attainment

Download full data set (146 countries) by 5-year age group or 15 years, 25 years, and over in 5-year interval (1950-2010) in xls, csv, or dta format.

WIPO- IP Statistics

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) IP Statistics Data Center is an on-line service enabling access to WIPO’s statistical data on Patents etc. Users can select from a wide range of indicators and view or download data according to their needs. This service is intended to be a tool for IP professionals, researchers and policymakers worldwide.

Mastering Estimation Methods

Write Up of Thesis