Methodology of economic research

The papers collected in this volume are not a series of disquisitions on methodology in the abstract; they do not plead for any school of method ology. What they do is to present the peculiar experience of the authors in the process of their own research - te provocations that led them to their particular enquiries, the challen ges that they met in the course of their investigations and the methods and techniques that they used in meeting them. This has given the contributions an element of individu ality and a freshness of approach.

The papers were originally presented to a seminar on Methodology of Eco nomic Research at the A.N.S. Institute of Social Studies, Patna. They were treated under three broad groups: those relating to analytical-cum applied work; those relating to survey type empirical research, requiring team work; and those relating to re search in economic history. The group discussions that followed the sentation of the papers are pre sum marised in the reports of the Rap porteurs.