M.S.

Research Proposals at IIIE

Dr. Asad Zaman

Here are the steps for preparing and defending an MS Research Proposal. This is an outline,
and details are provided later on in this document.
Step 1: Preparation of Research Proposal: Student should select a general area of interest,
and ask to be assigned a supervisor. It is the responsibility of IIIE to find a supervisor for
every student who asks for one. Once a supervisor is assigned, a research topic within the
area of interest can be chosen by discussions between the student and the supervisor. Once a
topic is chosen, then a nearly complete bibliography of recent related literature should be
prepared. A methodology which matches or improves methodology currently in use in
literature should be selected. Some analysis of availability of data sources required for
implementation of methodology should be made. Experts in the relevant field should be
consulted for comments and ideas regarding the proposal.
Step 2: Presentation of the Research Proposal at Faculty Seminar: After the supervisor
approves the proposal, it may be presented at the faculty seminar. Written comments should
be obtained from those present at the seminar. Faculty in related or nearby fields who were
unable to attend should be sent copies of the proposal for written comments. A summary of
presentation and comments received from faculty should be prepared by the supervisor. The
following points should be kept in mind in preparing this summary:
1. Evaluation of significance of the research: How the research relates to solutions of
real world economic problems facing us.
2. Evaluation of the contribution of the research; see point 4 in section 1 below.
3. Explanation of the skills/knowledge that the student will acquire in the course of
this research; see point 2 in section 1 below
4. The students presentation skills and his/her ability to answer questions clearly, and
other aspects of communication skills as displayed at the seminar should be
evaluated in the letter.
5. Responses to any comments received at the seminar, or after circulation of the
paper; proposal should have been revised in light of these comments.
The letter should be signed by all faculty members present at the presentation. Also, the
proposal should be circulated to all faculty not present for their comments as well, and a no
objections signature should be obtained from them. If proposal has been circulated and
there is no response within two weeks, this may be taken as no objection. A sample of the
format of the report to be submitted is provided in Report Format New.doc, available
from Google website: https://sites.google.com/site/iiieproposals

Step 3: Preparation of Case for presentation to IIIE Board of Studies. If faculty comments
are generally favorable, then student & supervisor should apply to IIIE BoS for approval of
topic. If there are a few specific objections, then proposal should be modified and approval
of modification may be obtained from faculty who made objection. If there are more serious
objections, then a new presentation will be required. In this case, after a thorough re-write or
a change of topic, the process may be started from beginning once again.




GuidelinesforPreparationandEvaluation
ofM.Phil.ThesisProposals,IIIE,IIUI
1: Requirements for An M.Phil. Thesis

Given that our M.Phil. Thesis is 6 credits, we should have in mind the workload
equivalent of two courses of three credits each. This means about 72 hours of lectures,
and perhaps twice this much time of preparation outside of class.

Proposed objectives to be achieved in M.Phil. Thesis:

1. Student should have mastery of coursework and topics necessary as background
for the research questions to be explored in the thesis.

2. Student should be familiar with nearly all literature relevant to his/her research
topic.

This second requirement is what I think is the main requirement for an M.Phil Thesis:
sufficient familiarity with a body of literature that one can say that the student is an
expert on this topic.

It is here that a supervisors help is essential in the choice of topic. It is necessary to
chose a topic which is sufficiently narrow that the student can master all the literature
related to the topic. The student will not know how much literature exists on a given
topic. Generally speaking, we expect that the student should read and understand
between 25 to 100 research articles, most of which should be published within the past
five to ten years, relating to his topic of specialization.

Whereas a Ph.D. generally requires a substantive addition to the body of existing
knowledge, requirements for an M.Phil. are lighter. There was consensus among the
faculty that three minor innovations (as opposed to major ones required by a Ph.D.) were
enough. This leads to our second set of requirements for an M.Phil. degree:

3. The research problem/s chosen should relate to some real world issue. The student
should have an understanding how the solution would help solve some problem
facing the society. Generally, the real world problem would be economic in nature
and would be relevant to Pakistan, although this is not required strictly speaking.

4. As a rough guide, there should be three distinct contributions within the thesis.
For example, taking a model utilized outside Pakistan and replicating it on
Pakistani data is one contribution. Adapting the model by changing specifications
to suit local conditions could be a second contribution. If relevant data series are
not available, finding suitable proxy statistics, and developing data estimates of
relevant variables could be a third contribution. Some judgment will be needed
here as a major contribution could be counted as two or three minor ones.
2. Evaluation of Proposals and Theses

When the research proposal is presented, we do not expect the student to fulfill
requirement 2 listed in first section above mastery of relevant literature will be acquired
in the process of carrying out the research. However, we do expect to see a bibliography
of journal articles and books which relate to the research topic, which the student is
expected to read and master as part of his research. This bibliography should be
extensive, but need not be complete at this early stage of proposal defence. However, we
do expect to see a nearly complete bibliography of all articles relevant to the topic of
research in the final thesis. Furthermore, we expect the student to display a genuine
understanding of the material in this bibliography. This understanding should qualify him
as an expert in the area of his research, which is what we expect as an outcome of the
process of producing an M.Phil. thesis. To clarify further, Ph. D. research is aimed at
producing innovators, who will actually make significant contributions to the area of
research. The distinction is that between Alim someone knowledgeable about the area,
and Mujtahid someone who can innovate and introduce new ideas about the area.

At the time of proposal presentation and defence, here is what we should look for
in an acceptable proposal:

1. Basic Background: Student should be familiar with the academic background
needed to do research in the area chosen. He should have had the relevant
coursework, broad familiarity with the topic area, and should be able to answer
questions about the relevance and significance of his topic to real world affairs.
2. Specialized Skills: If specialized skills are required to deal with the topic, student
should either demonstrate familiarity with these skills, or else a plan of study to
acquire these skills. Specialized skills refers to material not generally taught in
courses at M.Phil. level; for example, CGE models, specialized econometric
techniques, advanced topics in financial theory, wage search models,
experimental game theory, etc. etc. etc. We re-iterate that while basic background
(point 1 above) is required, specialized skills are not required at the proposal
stage, but a plan of action to acquire these skills is required.
3. Literature Review: Comprehensive literature review is NOT required at the
proposal defense. Sufficient familiarity with literature is needed to place the
research problem within context of existing research. What is the research
problem? Why is it important and relevant? Who has tackled it before and how?
The expected contribution of the proposed research must be highlighted. This will
require some discussion of existing findings, and where they are incomplete, and
how the research will add to our knowledge. Contribution can ONLY be
evaluated within context of existing research: what is currently known and
unknown requires knowing recent literature in the field.
4. Methodology: Methodology describes HOW the proposed research is to be
carried out. It is a common misunderstanding that model means regression
model, and methodology means OLS (or some more complex regression
estimation technique). In fact methodology is more comprehensive. The research
question, which deals with solving some real world problem, must be kept in
mind. Methodology refers to HOW we propose to SOLVE this problem? What
kind of evidence is needed to resolve the issues raised in the research question.
Ideally, we would like both historical and qualitative analysis of the problem,
which attempts to answer the research question. Additionally, more formal
analysis by statistical and quantitative methods would be useful. It is not
necessary to run regressions; many more flexible statistical techniques for using
the data to assess the research question are now available.
5. Model refers to a framework which will be used for data analysis. A regression
model, which assumes a causal chain (dependent and independent variables), and
certain types of functional forms (linear, loglinear, error correction, etc.) is a
framework. However, frameworks can also be more informal and qualitative, and
the tendency is shifting in this direction. Methods for applying the model to real
world phenomena need to be mentioned here. For regression models, estimation
and evaluation techniques are needed for example OLS estimates, and
evaluation for various types of model misspecification. Other types of models
may be calibrated against real data, or matched to data via graphical techniques
without formal regressions.
6. Data: Some mention of data sources to be used for analysis of the research
questions should be present within the proposal. Examiners must assess whether
adequate data is available, or can be obtained, to answer the question under
discussion. Lack of adequate data to address the issue can be (and often is) cause
for rejection of an otherwise excellent proposal.
7. Supervisor: At proposal defense, a supervisor should ideally be present. If
absolutely necessary, a letter from the supervisor approving the proposal can be
substituted, at the discretion of the IIIE faculty. To encourage a broad range of
research, and to reduce load on our own faculty, we should be liberal in allowing
for outside supervisors. Generally speaking, we should allow supervision by
qualified experts (typically Ph.D.s) in fields relevant to the research topic of the
student. Assistant Professors and above at academic and research institutions
would also be allowed. Requests for outside supervision should be approved by
IIIE on a case-by-case basis, and letters of approval should be issued to the
student, after consent for supervision is obtained from the outside supervisor.








4. Guidelines for Students on Preparation of Proposal

There are many different ways to choose a research topic. The best way is the following:

Real World Problem: Look at the world around you, and find an economic problem that
interests you. Here is a list of problems recently chosen by M.Phil. students, all of which
come from real world concerns:

1. Factors behind decline of milk production in Pakistan. Pakistan is one of the
leading countries in the world in terms of milk production, but there some concern
that milk production is declining. Is this true? If so, why?
2. Welfare impact of rising food prices in Pakistan. Food prices have risen sharply
all over the world in the recent past. What is the impact of this on the lives of the
poor in Pakistan?
3. Efficiency of response to Earthquake. A lot of money and aid flowed into
Pakistan following the Earthquake. Was it handled in an efficient way? Can we
learn something about the patterns of utilization?
4. Impact of Power Shortages on Industrial Production. This topic is self
explanatory.
5. WTO and Cotton Exports of Pakistan. Changes in rules and regulation regarding
cotton exports have occurred recently. How have they impacted on our cotton
exports.
6. Assessing Privatization of PTCL, HBL, KESC etc. A lot of privatizations have
occurred recently. How is the post-privatization performance of ? Has this been a
useful exercise or has it been bad for Pakistan?
7. Social Accounting for NGOs. A lot of NGOs are operating in Pakistan. Is this
good for us or bad? Conventional accounting rules look only at profit loss and
therefore cannot be used to evaluate NGOs. Operations of NGOs are often in
social spheres with no direct & immediate profit loss calculations possible. How
can we evaluate the social impact of NGOs to assess their value?
8. Language of Education: A cost benefit analysis of whether or not English is good
to use as the general medium of instruction in Pakistan. One the one hand, it
provides access to jobs. On the other hand, huge numbers of children fail to
understand basic lessons and are reduced to rote memorization because of
inadequate language skills.

If we look at the world around us, there is no shortage of real problems for which
research is needed to find solutions. Students have a mindset that we are not ready for
real problems yet, and want to find simple imitative and meaningless research as way to
fulfill degree requirements. This needs to be changed; we should give students
confidence that they can tackle and solve real world problems. Here is a step-by-step
guide to preparing a proposal for M.Phil research:

Step 1: Choosing a Research Problem.

How to select a problem from among the huge number of possibilities? I suggest that you
visit places where work is done on economic problems, and talk to people who are
working on solving them. There are various government ministries dealing with different
types of economic problems. They often hire consultants and ask for research reports on
different types of problems. There are also organizations like World Bank, IMF, ILO,
other UN institutions, as well as many research organization in the private sector, and
consultants. Talk to people about economic problems they are solving. Find a problem
that interests you.

There are two Islamic procedures for decision making: Istikhara and Mashwera. Use both
of these in selecting a research problem. Having chosen a tentative research problem,
discuss it with those who have some knowledge about the subject matter. Find out about
the literature, and about data sources, relevant to the research topic.

Step 2: Annotated Bibliography.

Once you have selected a problem, you need to collect and read literature relevant to the
problem. Research MUST ALWAYS be related to an existing body of literature. You
cannot write a thesis on a topic which is so new and different from existing research that
there is no literature on it.

Nowadays, the job of finding all relevant articles has become extremely easy this used
to be one of the most difficult jobs and the one which required the help of a supervisor
who knew all the important articles in the area. Now we can just put in a few relevant
keywords and come with all related articles. There is still some skill to choosing the right
keywords, but this can be learned on your own. Some of the important data bases are
Google Scholar, Google Books, EBSCOHOST (available at IIUI main library at Lincoln
Corner), SSRN, RePeC. Search through these to find articles relevant to your research
topic and create a cut-and-paste file of article titles, location, and abstracts. This is for
your own use. There is a common misunderstanding that this is the literature review.
Many proposals contain a list of articles together with their summaries this is an
annotated bibliography. It must be emphasized that this is NOT a literature review. The
difference will be explained later.

Next, you must start reading and understanding the key articles in the area, starting with
most recent ones and also those which are more general and comprehensive (as opposed
to specialized and narrow in focus). In my experience, this is one of the most difficult
parts of developing a research proposal. Students do not have experience with using their
own minds to read and understand articles on their own. They have been spoon fed from
textbooks and learned to memorize material and reproduce it on tests without
understanding. They follow the same pattern on proposals, cutting and pasting material
which they themselves do not understand. Learning to read and understand articles on
your own is a new skill which students do not have, and which requires hard work to
develop. This is essential to preparing a good proposal. Try to read one article a day, at
least. If you are lucky, you will find a literature survey in your area of interest. This is
useful because it will summarize a lot a literature in a coherent and integrated way. This
will give you familiarity with lots of literature without having to read it, and also point
the way toward the key readings in the field.

Step 3: More Precisely Focused Research Topic

It is only AFTER you have knowledge of recent literature in the area of your research
interest that it becomes possible to develop a sharply focused research topic. This is
because you learn what has and has not been researched. If there are five recent studies of
efficiency of Islamic Banking using DEA and Stochastic Frontier, you know that you
should avoid this area it is unlikely that you can say something new about it. Similarly
there are more than five recent studies of Islamic Microfinance; to venture into this area
requires that you must have some new concept, which has not been utilized by previous
researchers. Without knowing the literature, you cannot know whether a topic is original,
fresh and new, or old, tired and stale.

From the literature, you will be able to pick out questions which have been raised but not
answered. You will be able to see studies which have been done for similar problems in
other countries, but have not been replicated here. You might see some patterns in the
findings that will suggest some hypotheses that you would like to explore in your
research. After absorbing your readings, and some consultation with experts in the field,
you should be able to develop a clearly focused research topic. Here are some points to
keep in mind:

1. As you read articles, you will also learn who the authors of these articles are.
These are going to be your resource people, the ones to ask questions about
issues in your area of research. If they are in the local area, you should try to
meet them. If distant, it is always possible to contact them by email. You should
also try to find experts in your research area, and consult them about questions in
your reading and formulation of your research question.
2. Your preparation of a good proposal requires positioning your research in two
dimensions. One is how the research relates to the existing literature in the field
(based on your annotated bibliography). The second is how this research relates
to the real world and solving economic problems of Pakistan. Both dimensions
require separate types of effort. The first requires theoretical understanding and
reading of books and articles. The second requires meeting people of action,
working in the field, or practical problems facing Pakistan.

Step 4: Putting Together a Research Proposal


Once a focused and relevant topic has been selected as a result of the first three
steps, there are several ingredients necessary which are blended together to create a
research proposal which can be presented and defended in a seminar before the faculty. It
is well to remember that presentation is itself a skill, and it would be useful to run a
practice presentation before fellow students and an advisor to get some experience.
Below I list the essential ingredients of a research proposal. These run closely parallel to
the items used for evaluation of a research proposal, for obvious reasons.

1. Resource People: This will be an essential but hidden portion of the preparation
of a proposal. To the maximum extent possible, discuss your proposal with all
people who have some knowledge of your research area. Especially IIIE and IIUI
faculty having interest in your topic should be consulted. Also, you should talk to
experts from outside of IIUI. These people will guide you to research reports
unavailable from published sources, data collections, and also provide
suggestions about interesting aspects and angles related to your research that you
may not be aware of.
2. Literature Review. Unlike an annotated bibliography, which just lists relevant
articles and provides summaries, a literature review is sharply focused around the
research question which is being explored. Every article mentioned must be
directly related to the research topic, and this relationship must be brought out in
the review Article XYZ develops a model for this question, and has findings.
We think our research will show that these findings are not valid (or are valid)
for Pakistan for such and such reason. J ust because an article is on a similar
topic, it will not be put in literature review, unless it can be directly related and
discussed in context of the research question.
3. Relevance, Significance and Importance of the Research Topic. Most authors
explain why they are doing their research, so [i] some elements can be extracted
from your reading. An important element you have to prepare on your own is [ii]
the relationship between your proposed research and the existing literature. For
example, such-and-such research question has been explored for Nigeria, India
and Malaysia, but never in Pakistan. The third element is [iii] how the research
will help solve real problems facing the Pakistan economy. Again this will
require your own work and thought, your reading and understanding of relevant
literature, as well as your discussions with field experts.
4. Models and Methodology: Generally speaking, we do not expect innovations in
models and methodology at the M.Phil. level; these are expected at the Ph.D.
level. This means that you should be able to adopt models and methodology used
in existing literature, which you should have some familiarity with. When there
are different models, you should be able to see which is more relevant for
Pakistan. Also, you should be able to intelligently modify the models to make
them suitable for local context.
5. Estimating and quantifying models will require data on variables relevant to the
model. You must put some thought into identifying the sutiable variables and
data sources in Pakistan which will give you access to such variables.
Occasionally, it may be necessary to conduct a survey to get variables. Primary
data collection is time-consuming, expensive, and tedious, generally requiring a
lot of effort. M. Phil. scholars are better advised to use secondary data sources
wherever possible.

HOW TO WRITE A LITERATURE REVIEW


Experience with proposals show that students have no concept about how to write a
literature review. This note is intended to clarify the procedure.

As discussed in the study guide, the first step in doing research is to prepare an annotated
bibliography. Let us define some terms:

BIBLIOGRAPHY: This is a list of articles, organized by date, or by author, or by topic or
by some other method. For example:

Reino Hjerppe (2003). Social Capital and Economic Growth. Government Institute for Economic
Research, Finland.
Robert J. Barro (October 1998), Human Capital and Growth in cross-country regression. Harward
University. Iza DP No. 2703.
Sabatini, F. (20008) Social Capital and the Quality of Economic Development, Kyklos 61(3), pp.
466-499)
Stolle, D. and Rochan, T.R. (1998) Are all Associations Alike? Member Diversity, Associational
Type and the Creation of Social Capital, American Behavioral Scientist (42), pp. 47-65.


ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY: This is a list of articles together with a brief
summary of the what the article is about. Normally the summary is done with emphasis
on the topic being researched. That is, items relevant to the topic of research are
summarized. Here is a typical example, taken from an actual thesis:

Jones (1996) analyzed impact of human capital on economic growth by taking the cross country data of 78
countries with five year intervals from 1960 to 1985 and found that human capital has a positive and
significant effect on economic growth.

Appleton et al (1998) analyzed that both health and education are the components of human capital and
contributes to human welfare through economic growth. The level of income, education and health status in
Africa shows that the level of human development is the lowest of any region in the world. In this
comparative study of Africa with South Asia, the Author examined the school enrolment and health (human
capital) in 29 Africa countries with Asian countries, and found that the level of both education and health in
Africa are lower than those in other developing countries that causes the slow economic growth which
severely restricted the ability of governments and households to fund further investments in health and
education which result to low growth

Robert J. Barro (1998) used to analyzed the determinants of economic growth and investment in 100
countries. Author takes the data from 1960-1995 and applied panel data estimation techniques. The result
found that growth is positively related to average year of secondary and higher level of schooling of male
and insignificantly related to female school attainment as respectively 0.7% and -0.0040%.author also takes
the data of score on international comparable examination, quantity of schooling, score on scientific test,
and found that all these variables have positive and significant relationship with economic growth. The
instrument variables used were total year of adult schooling, pupil teacher ratio and school drops out rate
also showed significant impact on economic growth.
Michael et al (1998) examined the relationship of human capital and physical capital with economic growth
by including different theories on endogenous growth in one model, in which physical capital, human capital,
knowledge accumulation and R& D based technological progress, drives economic growth. Author merged
Uzawa and Lucas model with Grossman and Helpman model, as 85% of human capital is employed in the
production of goods. Results indicated that if educational productivity increases by 20%, long-run economic
growth increases by 35%. The Uzawa and Lucas model is best for the economy where development is
knowledge based, and Grossman and Helpman model is best for the economy where development in the
productivity occurs due to technological progress. The paper focused more on the importance of education
and training. As the physical capital contributed about 50% in economic growth while rest is due to
educational quality and technical progress.


BIG MISTAKE DONE BY 90% of ALL STUDENTS that I have seen so far:
WRONG IDEA: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY =LITERATURE REVIEW
The above is presented as a literature review, which it is not. A literature review is NOT
a sequence of paragraphs in which each paragraph discussed one article.

LITERATURE REVIEW is organized by Concepts, Themes, Ideas. Each paragraph is
devoted to some ISSUE, and all articles which discuss and take some stance regarding
the issue are discussed. The same article may be mentioned in several different
paragraphs because it has something of relevance to several different concepts.

Here is an OUTLINE of a literature review, taken from Saima Mehmoods Thesis:

Chapter.2 Literature Review
2.1 Motivation and Incentives .
2.1.1. Hygiene Theory .
2.1.2. Crowding Out Theory ..
2.1.3. Expectancy Theory of Motivation .
2.1.4. Theory of Behavior Modification..
2.1.5. Pink's Theory of Motivation
2.2 Previous Research
2.2.1. Economic, Gift and Social exchange..
2.2.2. Complexity of Gift Exchange in field ..
2.2.3. Determinants of Charitable Behavior
2.2.4. Exchange and Incentives
2.2.5. Conflict Between Social and Market Norms..
2.2.6. Social Exchange and Remuneration Scheme

Here the issues have been organized by TOPIC. For each topic, many articles related to
that topic are mentioned. For example, in discussing crowding out theory, Saima writes:

Edward Deci (1971) has emphasized the possibility of a crowding out effect, i.e., an external
intervention via monetary incentives or punishments may undermine intrinsic motivation. According
to his theory extrinsic awards undermine peoples intrinsic motivation to do a job. Later, many
studies analyzed this theory and confirmed the idea of crowding out (Fehr and Gchter, 1997; Fehr
et al., 1997; Gneezy and Rustichini, 2000). Crowding out occurs when the negative effect on
intrinsic motivation of offering a monetary reward outweighs the positive extrinsic motivation.
Crowding out effects are an empirically relevant phenomenon, but it does not prevail always. To
identify the conditions under which crowding-out and crowding-in effects arise is a worthwhile goal
for future research.


Suppose we want to turn an annotated bibliography into a literature review. Then we
have to look for themes and concepts. Furthermore, these themes MUST be related to our
research questions. WE DO NOT REVIEW LITERATURE which is not related to our
research questions. For example, saadia yaqoob lists objectives of her research as
follows:

The main objectives of this research are
To measure income inequality using Expenditure Approach for the period of 2004-05 and
2007-08.
To decompose inequality using Regression based estimation.
Measurement of poverty and its decomposition using Datt and Ravallion (1992) method.
Policy recommendation will be given for the improvement of income distribution in the
country.
It is the job of the supervisor to ensure that the research objectives are set correctly. They
should not be too vague or too broad, or too narrow. Now a literature review relevant to
THESE objectives should be done as follows:

FIRST: prepare an annotated bibliography of ALL articles which have measured income
inequality in PAKISTAN. Then classify them according to approach:

Income Approach, Expenditure Approach, other approach.

If all articles use same approach then this is not a useful way to categorize them. Instead,
think of some other way of organizing the literature.

Literature outside Pakistan is not directly relevant. So it should not be covered, UNLESS

it makes some methodological contribution that you plan to use
The results are to be compared to yours for example you find that social capital
impacts favorably on education but not on Health. Now you can cite a study from
India and say that they got the same results. OR that they got different results. In
both cases, the comparison is relevant.

Literature within Pakistan is relevant, but it should be covered ONLY to the extent that it
relates to YOUR research questions.