What is

Research?
S LODHI
What is research?
• The systematic investigation into
and study of materials, sources,
etc, in order to establish facts and
reach new conclusions. b. an
endeavour to discover new or
collate old facts etc by the
scientific study of a subject or by a
course of critical investigation.
[Oxford Concise Dictionary]

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 Research is what we do when we have a question or a
problem we want to resolve

We may already think we know the answer to our

question already
What is
research? We may think the answer is obvious, common sense
even

But until we have subjected our problem to rigorous

scientific scrutiny, our 'knowledge' remains little more
than guesswork or at best, intuition.

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What is research?

Formulate Figure out Present

First priority is to Then figure out Then you can

formulate your how you are going present your
question to answer it answer
• How have others
answered it?
• How does your proposal
fit in with what others
have done?
• How will you know
when you have
answered it?

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Research :significance
I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I understand." CONFUCIUS

The best way to learn economics is not to hear about it, or to read about it,
but to do it.

Doing economics means performing economic research.

As Booth et al. (1995, 2) note, "Doing research can help you understand the
material you are studying in a way that no other kind of work can match."
 Research Is the
Creation of Knowledge
• One popularly held view of research is that it means "the
search for knowledge."
• This definition seems to view knowledge as like fruit on a
tree in a forest.
• Thus, all that is necessary in the research process is for
the re-searcher to discover the tree and collect the
knowledge, much like a farmer picks fruit.
• This idea of knowledge is based on the traditional view
of science as entirely objective, where the data, when
collected, "speak for themselves.“
• In other words, the data will yield the same conclusions
to any researcher.
• This view fails to differentiate between knowledge and
facts.
Research Is the Creation of
Knowledge
• Knowledge is what is believed to be true about something, what is
believed to be a correct understanding of something.
• Facts are just data. Knowledge, by contrast, is facts with meaning;
that is, it is an expert's best interpretation of the facts.
• You can see this distinction if you compare the results from a
chemistry lab (i.e., the data) with the researcher's discussion of the
results in a lab report (i.e., the interpretation).
• Only the latter is the knowledge.
Research Is the Creation of
Knowledge
• Research, then, is not merely searching for facts.
• Research is more completely defined as the creation of (valid)
knowledge.’
• Facts are discovered; knowledge, as an interpretation, is created'
Instead of a farmer harvesting a fruit tree, a better analogy for
research is a detective searching for clues and then developing a case
on the basis of those clues or other evidence.
How knowledge advances?
• Knowledge in any discipline can be thought of as a conversation or
dialog between scholars as they develop competing arguments.
• One example familiar to students of macroeconomics is the
conflicting views between the Monetarists and the Keynesians.
• Through this dialog, arguments are evaluated, the weaker ones are
winnowed out, and the stronger ones are re-fined and improved.’
• Thus, over time knowledge in the field advances.
Classical scientific method
• Observation of some phenomenon
• Maybe systematic, occasional or accidental
• Some idea of an explanation (hypothesis)
• Induction, conjecture, intuition, guesswork
• Usually informed by related work
• Testing of the hypothesis
• Test and revision cycle

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Hypothesis
• Probability of research
• Nothing is certain
• The exception that “proves” the rule
• Scientific “truth” is actually usually a statement of what is most probable
given the currently known data ...
• ... within the given framework
• Statistical techniques try to help us show extent to which our results
really do support the hypothesis

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Hypothesis
• A hypothesis makes a prediction of the expected outcome in a given
situation
• Usually: how the manipulation of the independent variable will
influence the behaviour of a dependent variable
• The hypothesis is tested in an experiment
• Experimental design ensures that what you are doing is genuinely
(and solely) responsible for the results
• Extraneous variables have to be controlled

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Experiment
• If the experiment works, the hypothesis is shown to be probably
correct
• Can’t prove 100% truth
• If it fails, it could be because
• The hypothesis is wrong
• The experimental design is faulty

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Null hypothesis
• Experiments are generally set up to demonstrate or support (rarely
“prove” , note) a hypothesis
• The null hypothesis H0 is that any observed changes in behaviour are
due to chance
• The alternate hypothesis H1 is the hypothesis you are trying to
demonstrate
• Usually, the best you can do is refute H0 thus showing that H1 is
probably correct (with a measruable degree of likelihood: statistical
significance)

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Where do hypotheses come from?
• Not usually thin air
• From within a framework
• Some phenomenon is not well explained by current thinking
• “New” hypothesis is often just an adaptation of an existing hypothesis
• thesis ~ antithesis ~ synthesis

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thesis ~ antithesis ~ synthesis
• Thesis
• the original statement of an idea
• Antithesis
• an argument to challenge a previous thesis
• often draws on new data
• Synthesis
• a new argument from existing sources
• typically, resolves the apparent contradiction between a thesis and an
antithesis

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Testability
• A good hypothesis is testable
• Not provable, in the sense of “shown to be true” (true = certain)
• Refutation of a thesis by proving that it is false is a cornerstone of modern
science
• Simply refuting a hypothesis is OK but better science will explain why
hypothesis is wrong, and (better still) offer an alternative hypothesis

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By the way, have you ever wondered why we do experiments at
school, the result of which is known beforehand?

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One-/two-tailed hypotheses
• Our experimental design may make either
• a strong prediction about the behaviour we expect to observe:
• our manipulation of the independent variable will cause a specific change in the
dependent variable
• a prediction about a range of behaviours we expect to observe, typically
perhaps two
• One-tailed hypothesis: statistical significance means expected result
was found
• Two-tailed hypothesis: only need to show that the different results
are statistically significant

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Variables
• The experiment measures the “behaviour” of the dependent variable
• DV must be operationalised
• Some aspect of the DV must be measurable
• What to measure?
• How to measure it?
• Are you really measuring what you think you are measuring?

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Quantitative vs qualitative
• Quantitative research
• systematically observe changes in the phenomena of interest while
manipulating what are believed to be causal influences
• Qualitative research
• may be more concerned with the individual’s personal experiences of the
problem under study

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“Proof” by demonstration
• Intuitive alternative to the classical scientific method:
• Build something specific and then claim that it can be seen as an example of a
more general class of solutions
• High risk
• difficult to demonstrate generalisability
• in fact doing so entails making an a posteriori hypothesis
• What can you say if it goes wrong ?
• So you still need a theoretical basis

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Planning
• Statement of the problem
• Literature review
• Choice of research method
• Design of study
• Data collection
• Analysis of data
• Write-up

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