NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA 
                                                                                                
                                                                                                
                                                            RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 
                                                                  COURSE CODE: ECO 715 
                                                                                                
                                                                                                
                                                        FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES 
                                                         DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS 
                                                                                                
                                                            COURSE CONTENT DEVELOPERS 
                                                                 Dr Aminu Muhammad Mustapha 
                                                 Department of Economics and Development Studies,  
                                                                Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences 
                                                     Federal University Dutse, Jigawa State - Nigeria 
                                                                                              & 
                                                               Dr (Mrs) Fa’izah Adhama Mukhtar 
                                                 Department of Economics and Development Studies,  
                                                                Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences 
                                                     Federal University Dutse, Jigawa State - Nigeria 
                        
                                                                          Course Content Editor 
                                                                          Prof. Dimis I. Mailafia 
                                                                        Department of Economics 
                                                                                University of Jos 
                                                                                   Plateau State 
                        
                        
                                                                    
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         CONTENT 
         Introduction 
         Course Content 
         Course Aims 
         Course Objectives 
         Working through This Course 
         Course Materials 
         Study Units 
         Textbooks and References 
         Assignment File 
         Presentation Schedule 
         Assessment 
         Tutor-Marked Assignment (TMAs) 
         Final Examination and Grading 
         Course Marking Scheme 
         Course Overview 
         How to Get the Most from This Course 
         Tutors and Tutorials 
         Summary 
          
          
          
         Introduction 
         Welcome to ECO: 715 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 
         ECO 715: Research Methodology is a three-credit and one-semester postgraduate course 
         for Development Economics students. The course is made up of twelve units spread across 
         twelve lectures weeks. This course guide gives you an insight to research and its methods 
         in social sciences and Economics in particular in a broader way and how to study make use 
         of the methods in applied research. It tells you about the course materials and how you can 
         work your way through these materials. It suggests some general guidelines for the amount 
         of time required of you on each unit in order to achieve the course aims and objectives 
         successfully. Answers to your tutor marked assignments (TMAs) are therein already. 
         Course Content 
         This course is basically on Research Methodology because as you are aspiring to become 
         a development economist, you must be able to apply the knowledge of research to find 
         answers to various economic questions and problems. The topics covered include Research 
         methodology and the philosophy of economic research; identification of researchable 
         problems and the development of hypotheses or research questions. The course will also 
         involve a detailed treatment of the methods and problems of collecting relevant research 
         data, the format for presenting research results (i.e. from designing the table of contents to 
         referencing or bibliography). Also to be covered are the various methods of establishing 
         relationships between economic variables; basic elements of model building in economics; 
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       application of multivariate analysis, correlation and discriminant analysis; tests of causality 
       Chi-square tests, etc. students will be required to write a seminar paper in this course. 
       Course Aims 
       The aim of this course is to give you in-depth understanding of research methodology as 
       regards: 
         •  Research methodology  
         •  Conceptual and Philosophical foundations of Economic research 
         •  Identification of researchable problems and the development of 
                                hypotheses or research questions. 
         •  Data and its types and manipulation 
         •  Methods of collecting relevant research data, 
         •  Variable types and their measurement 
         •  Sampling 
         •  Basic elements of model building in economics;  
         •  Bivariate and multivariate methods of establishing relationships 
                                 between economic variables; 
         •   Common statistical tests in economics 
         •  The format for presenting research results 
         •  Referencing 
        
       Course Objectives 
       To achieve the aims of this course, there are overall objectives which the course is out to 
       achieve though, there are set out objectives for each unit. The unit objectives are included 
       at the beginning of a unit; you should read them before you start working through the unit. 
       You may want to refer to them during your study of the unit to check on your progress. 
       You should always look at the unit objectives after completing a unit. This is to assist the 
       students in accomplishing the tasks entailed in this course. In this way, you can be sure you 
       have done what was required of you by the unit. The objectives serve as study guides; such 
       that student could know if he is able to grab the knowledge of each unit through the sets of 
       objectives in each one. At the end of the course period, the students are expected to be able 
       to:  
         •  be acquainted with all salient aspects of research methodology in accordance with 
          the current body of scientific literature on this indispensable area of social science 
         •  apply the theoretical knowledge acquired in this course with the appropriate context-
          related modifications - be applied to numerous real-life situations in Economics 
         •  stimulate interest in the field as a prospective career field  
       Demands on Course Participants 
         •  Acquisition and careful application of knowledge 
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