One of the first things to do in any research is to revise previous literature on the subject. It's amazing to find hundreds of different perspectives on the subject I’m studying in the international reviews, there are actually a few studies doing cross-country comparisons that include
But when I checked what had been done here about the topic I found nothing. I guess it’s because our country is facing so many different economic problems at the same time that there is virtually no time to study everything: in that sense most of the studies I found are more about the economic situation than about testing theories or developing new ones.
I believe it is very valuable to do such kind of research, because if we don’t know the extent of the problems we cannot actually work to solve them. What disappoints me is that studies stop there, they don’t go beyond some general policy recommendations about what should be done. It seems to me they lack a theoretical framework.
The good thing about this lack of studies is that there is so much to be done! There are many ways one can actually make a contribution, just by pooling several different theories and testing them all together. And that’s precisely what I’m planning to do at work. Isn’t that exciting?
I was wondering why there were no theoretical studies. I don’t know whether it is lack of an interest in economic theory in general, or perhaps lack of creativity to actually come up with a new theory, others would suggest is simple laziness. Another, devastating idea is that by the time a researcher is done with the analysis of the situation, there is no money or time to continue with the actual theoretical part.
Any ideas about why researchers concentrate on the general situation?
I’ll continue thinking about this. Next time I might come up with the opinions of some colleagues. But I’d like to hear yours!
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