first meeting

[selin dilli]

Dear all,

I would like to arrange our first meeting as soon as possible to see what everyone wants to get from this discussion group and decide on regular meetings (maybe every 2-3 weeks depending on the demand). What I have in mind regarding the content of the first meeting is as follows:

1)Make a round for brain storming on what we would like to get from this discussion group. Everyone, regarding the econometrics, has a different level of knowledge and I want this group to be beneficial for all the participants.

2)To give the meeting a start, we can have a discussion on three major issues on the methodology/ analysis(which is based on the problems I faced so far but maybe some of us would find some parallelism): a. How to approach time invariant variables in time series/panel data analysis, b. How to approach changing countries in our datasets (i.e., after collapse of Soviet Union, Korea etc.), c. how to deal with missing observations/unbalanced panels in an appropriate way. These issues can be expanded/changed if anyone has any suggestion.

3) Quantifying concepts. I am not really sure about this part yet, but we can also discuss how to measure concepts based on the theory in an accurate way. Are the measures we use correspond to what we want to test in different contexts(can be related to various common interest variables such as human capital, political measures). Are the measures we use comparable on a cross national level, etc.

These are the main points I have so far in mind. Of course, the content of the meetings will be adjusted after the first meeting. Regarding the meeting dates, I have two suggestions; next week either on Wendesday and Thursday (June 27th and 28th) around 3pm if these dates work for many of us, so that we can discuss some issues before most of us head to Stellenbosch. 

Let me know what you think about the dates and the content of the meeting,

Best,

Selin