Thematic
Research - Proposal Writing: What You Need to Know
Choosing a Research Topic:
Researchers differ widely in their motives for choosing
a particular research topic. One strategy is to play
safe by proposing to do for your own country what was
recently approved as an AERC project for another country.
This, of course, economizes on effort since one of your
fellow researchers has already thought carefully about
the research questions, the potential contribution of
the proposed research to the literature, the methodology,
possible solutions to the econometric issues involved
and so on. Much of this you can easily adapt for your
own purposes.
It is not easy, though, to indicate when such copying
behaviour is acceptable. Clearly, in all our research
we owe an immense debt to our predecessors in the field
and there is nothing wrong with, for example, testing
an existing hypothesis on a different data set using
methods that have been used before. However, you will
have to convince the reviewers that there is enough
value added in what you propose to do. If you sail too
close to the wind your proposal may be rejected, not
because there is anything wrong with it, but simply
because it is considered to be too similar to what has
already been done.
The risk of a proposal being rejected for lack of value
added is an important consideration, but not the only
one. If your choice of topic amounts to using someone
else's research design then the danger is that you will
learn very little from the experience. You may succeed
in getting the project approved, but you will not become
a much better researcher in the course of the work.
It is much better - and certainly more fun - to be
adventurous. While this may sound risky, it is not.
If you move beyond well-trodden ground reviewers will
certainly recognize this. They are then much more likely
to support the proposal than if you propose something
that has been done many times before.
When choosing your topic you should not feel constrained
by the current designations of the four AERC groups:
- Group A Poverty, Income Distribution and Labour
Market Issues
- Group AT Trade, Regional Integration and Sectoral
Policies
- Group B Macroeconomic Policies, Stabilization and
Growth
- Group C Finance, Resource Mobilization and Investment
There are many excellent AERC research projects that
may not appear to fit under these headings, hence the
heading alone may not provide a good reason to change
your topic. The titles of the groups do not signal very
clearly what sort of research they discuss. Basically,
if you have an interesting research question that is
within economics and addresses an important African
policy issue, then you should proceed with your proposal.That
last restriction is quite important, however, because
AERC looks for policy relevant research. This means
that a purely methodological research project, for example,
would not qualify for AERC support.
To illustrate, consider group AT. Group AT encourages
work in political economy, in applied contract theory
and in the microeconomics of industrial performance.
None of these topics is, strictly speaking, covered
by the group's title. But, there is exciting work to
be done in these areas and you should feel free to move
in such new directions. The same is true for other groups.
The boundaries of the AERC research programme are fluid.
For example, there are numerous studies on poverty (in
group A), while there were none some years ago. Also,
AERC has supported work on topics as diverse as the
determinants of school enrolment and farmers' choice
of techniques. The lesson is that the titles of the
groups should not be taken too literally when you are
choosing your topic, since there is normally more room
than these titles suggest. |
