On December 27th, 2016, National Academy of Public Administration and Science Po Paris co-organized seminar “Research in accordance with international standards: designing, implementing and publishing research”. Presented at the seminar were Professor Do Quoc Anh, Science Po Paris. He is a young Vietnamese researcher who received Gold Medal of International Mathematical Olympiad 1998. Professor Do Quoc Anh graduated Bachelor of Economic at Harvard University and he also has many articles published in prestigious journals in economics.
At the seminar, Professor Do Quoc Anh presented an overview of economic research around the world as an analysis tool and policy action. At the same time, through specific examples of justified relationships between institutions, geographical location (latitude) and development, he showed the using of a quantitative model to test theoretical prediction based on data as well as practical significance of using experimental methods in analyzing and testing the causal relationship between factors in policy evaluation. Professor Do Quoc Anh also spent time sharing with NAPA faculties and staff the process of writing and publishing scientific article on a prestigious journal as well as answering questions from NAPA staff and lecturers.
The seminar helped NAPA staff and lecturers to improve awareness of requirements in researching, policy evaluation and development of experiment-based analysis and evaluation tools to enhance the quality of policy advice activities. On the other hand, participants also raised their awareness of certain requirements of research and policy evaluation, specifically: evidence-based research; no perfect method and a need of combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. Obviously, it is imperative to improve capacity for policy formulation and evaluation staff in researching and policy evaluation, which will help them choose appropriate research methods in formulating and evaluating policy.
