Writing the Research Proposal

Five Components

1. Statement or the Nature of the Problem 2. The research question 3. Survey of the literature 4. Research design 5. References

Literature Search

Research Proposal

Flexible but should be used as a blueprint. Thorough and complete. The proposal is an evidence of the quality

of the research that is planned.

Components of a Research Proposal 1. Statement or the nature of the problem. 2. The research question. 3. Survey of the literature. 4. Research design. 5. References.

The proposal should anwer the following four questions: - What is the issue or the problem? - What specific question will you attempt to

answer? - How will you attempt to answer the

question? - Do you have adequate sources?

Surveying the Literature

Literature survey is the documentation of a comprehensive review of the published and unpublished work from secondary sources data in the areas of specific interest to the researcher.

The library is a rich storage base for secondary data and researchers used to spend several weeks and sometimes months going through books, journals, newspapers, magazines, conference proceedings, doctoral dissertations, master's theses, government publications and financial reports to find information on their research topic.

With computerized databases now readily available and accessible the literature search is much speedier and easier and can be done without entering the portals of a library building.

http://www.blurtit.com/q760268.html

Where to Search?

Where to begin? Scholarly journals.

e.g. American Economic Review (AER) Popular journals

e.g.Economist, Business Week, WSJ.

Internet Resources

www.galaxy.com www.looksmart.com www.yahoo.com www.vlib.org www.ipl.org

Search Engines

www.google.com www.excite.com www.altavista.com www.go2net.com Google scholar

Examples of Scholarly Economic Journals American Economic Review Journal of Political Ecnomy Quarterly Journal of Economics Econometrica Review of Economics and Statistics Review of Economic Studies İktisat, İşletme, Finans

Developing an Effective Search Strategy Our research question: “To what extent

was the 2001 US economic slowdown caused by the decline in the stock market?”

Browsing Keyword searching

Browsing

Requires manually examining a document (printed bibliography or an online directory).

Effective browsing requires you to think carefully on how information about a discipline is organised.

AEA hierarchical system is a useful tool.

http://www.aeaweb.org/journal/jel_class_system.php

AEA JEL Subject Descriptors

Keyword Search

Alternative way for locating information is keyword search.

EconLithttp://www.aeaweb.org/econlit/index.php DEU Library (databases)http://www.deu.edu.tr/DEUWeb/Icerik/Icerik.php?

KOD=109“ONLINE VERİ TABANLARI”

Sample Keyword Search

1. Research topic: “The extent to which the 2001 economic slowdown was caused by a decline in the stock market”

2. Important concepts for beginning: stock market decline and economic slowdown.

3. Possible connections: household wealth, consumer spending. Also,go through JEL classification for more tips on keywords.

4. Think about synonyms. 5. Two fields: economics and business

6. Phrase searching (use AND) 7. Good database to begin with EconLit.

Some (but no all) other databases (all available at DEU library):JStoreEBSCO hostEmerald

CLASS WORK & HOMEWORK

Select a research question and do the following exercises:

Which of the headings in JEL classification this research question would fit?

Search Journal of Economic Literature and identify at least three articles that are related to your research question (write down complete citation)

Search by using a database other than JEL and identify at least three articles (write down complete citation)

Search by using a web search engine. Get at least three scholarly articles (write down complete citation)

Theorizing the Research (Ch. 7)

Apply theory to a research topic RQ: Retail demand for jewelery sales Theory of demand Variables

What is theorizing?? 1. What are the essential concapts involved in the problem being

researched? 2. How are the essential concepts related? 3. What implications can be drawn from these relationships?

RQ: The extent to which Turkey’s microeconomic slowdown was caused by the decline in stock market.

Two concepts: Slowdown Stock market

Economic theory: Decrease in aggregate demand C+I+G+(E-I)=AD Which of the variables will be related to the decline in the stock

market?

Decline in the stock market should cause should cause economic slowdown as a result of reduced investment and consumer spending.

Narrative reasoning Mathematical reasoning

Optimizing Models

Example 1 Greenlaw p. 130-131 RQ: What factores determine the the

output Company X will supply. Utilize profit maximization model