My irresponsibility knows no limits.

April 8, 2009 12:00 PM

I'm currently in the last year of a Masters in International Business. I thought that having an internationally-acclaimed economist as my thesis tutor would work out to my advantage. Having not even heard from him in the past six months, however, I decided to take the drastic but necessary step of sacking him. I also changed the topic to Microcredit in Brazil, a subject that interests me far more but instantly poses the problem of having to begin again from scratch. I hope I made the right decision. Anyway, I have to have my Literature Review on my teacher's desk by Monday. Please help.

I've done a lot of generalised reading already, but I'm still struggling to come up with an original and compelling area of focus. The whole idea of microcredit seems extremely relevant at the moment given that ridiculously easy access to credit has been cited as one of the main contributing factors to have led to the current global crisis. Impoverised Brazilians - like impoverished people around the world - have had money practically thrown at them over the past five years or so that has enabled them to buy everything from satellite dishes to cell phones. Now the chickens are coming home to roost.

Microcredit, on the surface, at least, seems different - not least because of the very stringent lending procedures in place. I'm interested in exploring this contrast, perhaps investigating lending quality and what proportion of borrowing is truly made with the intention of investment verses mere consumerism. At the moment, however, all these ideas are terribly vague. Can anyone help me out with some ideas?

I shall be in Rio from June onwards and hope to be working with a microcredit institution during which time I'll have the opportunity to carry out some extensive fieldwork.

Before anyone mentions it, I am fully aware of how pathetic and irresponsible this is. My only excuse is that I've been very busy with an internship which, combined with a few recent personal problems, has left me completely drained and without the time I would have liked to have dedicated to this.

posted by Zé Pequeno to Work & Money (2 answers total)

Ok a couple of points here.

First of all, you're correct; many times the department star get assigned people that she / he doesn't really want to work with. Topic, perceived quality of your contribution to their research efforts, whatever. Doesn't really matter - that person didn't want to work with you. So good thing you terminated the relationship, no sense in having that hold you back.

Second, surely you need a draft lit review, not the completed version. Skeletal or semi-fleshed out, your new advisor will understand, especially so if the background (i.e. change of advisors & topics) is known. Hopefully this new advisor will have an interest in your chosen topic. If so you can seriously leverage the back and forth and you might just end up going into a direction that you can't precisely specify at this (early) point in time.

Third, I've supervised a few people doing dissertations on various aspects of micro credit; you know if I were to supervise someone looking into this area now I'd want to evaluate changes in default rates as the global economy has been stressed. Micro in general has a much, much lower probability of default, but still I'm betting you'd see some impact attributable to macro. Also look at funds deployed against business / projects approved. Sight unseen, I'm willing to bet some projects simply aren't being approved for funding. Finally perhaps look at a micro level wrt the various obligors; how are their businesses faring? Is free cash flow / debt service suffering as macro deteriorates?

Fourth, don't sweat this too much. Dissertations are about back and forth, with your advisor contributing to your success. Of course by that I don't mean writing / researching but rather encouraging, taking a perspective that allows the introduction of different ideas, and - most importantly from my viewpoint - getting the student through the process.

Your new advisor has more than likely seen it all before, and you're probably not the least prepared student they've had to tutor.

Get something on paper and get it over to them, BEFORE your meeting so you'll have something to discuss. Nothing irritates an advisor more than having someone bring a few thousand printed words to a meeting, and expect valuable input. Such meetings always result in additional meetings, and are, to be honest, almost a total waste of time.

In any case, best of luck and most importantly - enjoy yourself!
posted by Mutant at 12:28 PM on April 8, 2009 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks for that, Mutant. That's made me feel a lot less panicked about all this. Your first point was, of course, totally justified. As it happens, it was him that volunteered to tutor me (and also a few others) and none of us have had much contact with him. It could very well be argued that he had a lucky escape, however!
posted by Zé Pequeno at 1:03 PM on April 8, 2009