1、Holly Wang Workshop at CAU December 15, 2010,Conducting Empirical Research and Publishing in International Journals,Procedures of Conducting Empirical Research,Choose your topicBuild a teamReview literatureEconomic modelsCollect and clean dataEconometric methodAnalyzeWrite papers,Grant proposal,Choo
2、se Your Topic,What is the hot topic currently?Funding availabilityEasiness in publishingTime lagIs it important over the long run or just a fad?What is your personal interest?MotivatedHave background knowledgeFuture careerDefine the right scope of the topicDo you have the capacity to handle it?Do yo
3、u have the time and resource to handle it?,Build A Team,Advisor: if you are a studentIs s/he the expert for the chosen topic?Will s/he be able to give you enough time?Is his/her advising style match your need?Team membersNeed one expert to cover each aspect of the project: economic model, econometri
4、c methods, field knowledge, policy knowledge, data collection resourceWilling to share the resource and creditHave a clear role for each team member,Literature Review,Searching engine: google scholar, econlit, etc.Background and situation: eg, GDP, and other statisticsIssues: papers of similar topic
5、s: what have been done, and what have not been studiedidentify gaps in literaturespecific objectives to fill the gapsMethodspapers with relevant methods that can be used,Economic Models,Microeconomic theorysupply theory, demand theory, derived demandimperfect competition and game theorygeneral equil
6、ibrium and trade theoryMacroeconomic theorygrowth modelStructure model vs reduced form Variable selection suggested by the theoryShifters, especially demographic variablesTestable hypothesis,Data,Based on theory, identify variables neededCross section vs time seriesLocation, size, time horizonHow ag
7、gregated Survey design vs published dataFocus groupRandom samplingData clean up,Econometric methods,Least square based regressionTobit model for truncated dataLogit/Probit for qualitative dependent variablesEquation systems: SURE Maximum loglikelihood estimationNonparametric,Analyze,Diagnose tests T
8、ry alternative models specificationsHypothesisResults shall address the objectivesExplain results and compare with intuition,Paper Writing,Make a title to be concise and specificKey words and abstractSelect a journal Read a couple of recent issuesThe topic is accepted by the journalImpact factor, fees, fast review Cite articles from the journalFormatting for the journalSubmit,Paper Structure,Introduction (including background, literature review, objectives)Model (theory)Data (explain data collection methods, and variables, descriptive statistics)ResultsConclusion (policy implication),
