Hauptinhalt

PhD Week October 2011

This year a PhD course within the IIDEOS program was organized to offer PhD students the opportunity for mutual exchange and to enhance their methodological skills. The PhD course took place in Marburg (Lahn) from10th to 14th October 2011.

1. Program Overview

Below you can find the program for the PhD course in Marburg from 10th to 14th October 2011.

Mon, 10th        PhD colloquium
   
Tue, 11th
& Wed, 12th
PhD course #1: "Firm growth an the statistical analysis of firm dynamics"
Lecturer: Alex Coad
Thu, 13th
& Fri, 14th
PhD course #2: "Qualitative Research Methods - An overview"
Lecturer: Stefano Brusoni

Note: For each successfully completed course one credit point (ECTS) is granted.

2. PhD Colloquium

Each presentation takes 25 minutes and is followed by a discussion of half an hour. Speakers have to hand in a paper one week in advance which will be sent to all participants. These papers serve a better understanding as well as discussion basis. The working language is English.
The meeting will start at 9 a.m. and end at 6 p.m. depending on the number of speakers (7 at most). During lunch time there will be the chance of eating together.

3. "Firm growth and the statistical analysis of firm dynamics" (20 seats)

Lecturer: Alex Coad, Senior Research Fellow, SPRU, University of Sussex, UK
Room: to be announced
Time: 9 a.m. – 5 p.m

Tue, 11th Oct 2011, Course: Firm size and firm growth

Firm size distribution (Gibrat's Law, lognormal vs Pareto, Age distribution); Growth rates distribution; Characteristics and determinants of firm growth: a survey (size, age, lagged growth, innovation, financial performance, relative productivity, multiplant firms, legal status, characteristics of the founder, desire to grow, threshold effects, shadow of death, macro conditions); VAR models - growth processes; Theories of firm growth: neoclassical, Penrose and the resource-based view, managerial, evolutionary (selection and reallocation), population ecology; Stages of growth models.

Wed, 12th Oct 2011, Course: Firm growth econometrics

OLS (R2, heteroskedasticity, multicollinearity, statistical significance, associations vs causality); Panel data regressions; Endogeneity, causality, Instrumental variables; Non-normal error terms (heavy-tailed growth rate distributions) - median regressions; Quantile regression; Vector autoregressions: VARs, SVARs (theory-driven or data-driven identification of causality); Matching techniques (randomized experiments as 'gold standard'); Useful techniques for evolutionary economists (Cantner and Krueger 2007): Kernel plots, productivity indicators, quantile regression.

This course ends with a short exam from 5 to 6 p.m. at the end of the second day.

4. "Qualitative Research Methods - An overview" (15 seats)

Lecturer: Stefano Brusoni, Director of Master of Science in Economics and Management of Innovation and Technology, Bocconi University, Italy.
Room: to be announced
Time: 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

 

Thu, 13th and Fri, 14th Oct 2011

Qualitative research methods are many, different and rapidly evolving. They are about developing newer and better theories, generating precise and testable hypotheses, validating established measures and indicators, evaluating programs’ and policies’ impact. They are part of any empirical study, if only because quantitative and experimental studies require careful (qualitative) piloting. They are applied in disciplines as diverse as strategy, marketing, medicine, biology, neuropsychiatry, economics, political sciences, sociology, etc.

The aim of this course is providing a broad overview of the main problems researchers face when designing and implementing qualitative research methods. It is meant to introduce students to the main problems (and solutions) related to:

  1. Research design: How do ‘qualitative’ research proposals differ from ‘quantitative’ research proposal? Specific attention will be devoted to the ethical issues raised by the very process of doing research (qualitative or not).
  2. Research questions: how do you define ‘answerable’ research questions? How do ‘qualitative’ research questions differ from ‘quantitative’ research questions?
  3. Design your literature review. What is the role of theory in driving the research process?
  4. Implement your study. How long it takes? How does ‘qualitative’ fieldwork differ from ‘quantitative’ fieldwork? What does ‘sampling’ mean and how it matters to qualitative researchers?
  5. Data analysis. How do you analyze qualitative data? Can you generalize? Should you?
  6. Write it down. How do you write down qualitative research? How do you get it published?