Several Styles of Research

There are several styles of research. The following lists them:

1. Build intuition. This is a theoretical research, which uses a very simple model. The purpose is to get some intuitive ideas. When conducting this type of research, we must be careful to avoid only playing mathematics.


2. Quantify theoretical implications. This is a theoretical and empirical study, which uses a little bit elaborated model to quantify existing hypothesises. The reason why an elaborated model is used is that we need a set of realistic parameter values. The model is elaborated, but the estimation procedure for parameters is less elaborated. This is because the focus is not on obtaining much accurate numbers but on drawing intuitions from results.


3. Change the previous assumptions. This is a theoretical research, which changes the assumptions made in the previous literature to check the robustness of the previous results.


4. Overcome the previous limits using new estimation techniques. This is an empirical study, which could be conducted after the emergence of new estimation techniques.


5. Sophisticate the estimation procedure. This is an empirical study, which uses a more sophisticated method to obtain numbers than past. This should be distinguished from the research-2. above.


6. Apply the previous method to new data set. This is an empirical study, which uses new data set available to investigate the robustness of the previous studies.

At this moment, I prefer the 2nd approach. It is both theoretical and empirical. To be more precise, I like the 2nd one, the focus of which is mainly on theoretical topics but which also has a little bit of emprical flavor. I don't want to commit my life to any particular institution to obtain very detailed micro data usually unofficial and unavailable from outside.