If you are wondering whether you appoint me as an advisor, the following information may help your decision.
This page is preliminary and is always subject to change.
Topics to study
If your research topic includes theoretical study in Microeconomics field (or its applications), I am glad to advise you. In particular,
-Pure theoretical study of game theory
-applied research using game theory such as Industrial Organization, Mechanism Design, etc.
are highly welcomed.
If you also want to conduct an empirical study as well as theoretical study, it is also encouraged. But please keep in mind that I am not a specialist of empirical research and thus I strongly recommend you get advice from another professor who can give advice or suggestions about relevant empirical methods.
If you wonder whether to appoint me an advisor, some criteria are as follows:
-If you want to construct your own theoretical model and then check your hypothesis (derived from your model), then we will be a good match.
-If you want to work mainly with empirical models and just want to include a review of existing theoretical models in your paper, then probably asking another professor for advice is a good idea (even in that case, I will be glad to discuss some model with you when you need help in understanding theoretical models).
Recommended Topics to Be Studied Before Working with Dissertation
I need to tell you that constructing your own theoretical model is usually very difficult. You need to understand existing models very clearly to construct your model, even if it is a simple toy model. Things become even tougher if you want to construct a game-theoretic model because usually students learn game theory for the first time when they are just beginning their senior year.
Given this situation, I strongly recommend that you have one of the following qualities:
-former exposition of game theory
-strong background of mathematical models so that you can readily understand first several elementary topics in game theory (for example, test yourself if you can understand several chapters of my lecture note on game theory)
-diligence and patience
Advising Policy
-I want to have a regular meeting with you so that I can check your progress (That doesn’t mean that you need to make progress every time).
Shigeki Isogai 