Doing a Doctorate - The PhD Students point of view

Transcription

1 1 Doing a Doctorate - The PhD Students point of view Dipl.-Volkswirt Jürgen Jilke Chair of Public Finance Bamberg University

2 2 Outline Part 0: Exemplary topics of special interest Part 1: Me as one of the Professor s Assistants - Brief introduction of myself and my internal doctorate in Economics - Exemplary working week at the Chair of Public Finance (Apprenticeship) Part 2: Me as a young Researcher - Organisational Issues of my doctorate» Stages of my doctorate» The general idea to be developed with Mentor» The Feedback and Evaluation Process - Exemplary working week at the Chair of Public Finance (Research) Part 3: The topic of my PhD Thesis Efficiency Aspects of Corporate Income Taxation in the European Union - Necessity, Aims and Instruments of my research

3 3 Exemplary topics of special interest Topics in Economics (Public Finance): At the moment, especially those topics are of significant interest which combine traditional fields of economics with requirements of a globalized world, i.e. linkages between economies, international spillover effects etc. Exemplary Field of Research: Environment Efficiency Aspects of European Energy Markets and New Approaches to enhance energy efficiency in households by governmental regulations Exemplary Field of Research: International Taxation Corporate income taxation in the European Union Perspectives and Reform-proposals to enhance economic efficiency Exemplary Field of Research: Public Debt and Rules of limitation Effects of the newly established debt ceiling on fiscal policy and Effects of the financial crisis on public debt in EU-Member States

4 Me as one of the Professor s assistants Brief introduction and my internal doctorate 4 From 2004 until 2008: Master Program in Economics at Bamberg University 3 Fields of Specialization: Public Finance (Prof. Wenzel), Economic Policy as well as Auditing and Company Taxation From 2008 until today: Doctorate at the Chair of Public Finance The first crucial question: Do I want to start my PhD as an external or internal PhD Student? - Internal doctorate: Combination of teaching and research (Humboldt) - For Economics in general and my case in particular the internal doctorate seems to be more adequate

5 Me as one of the Professor s assistants - Exemplary working week I 5 Contract of employment with the university clearly demands two aspects: 1. Obligation to do a doctorate 2. To work part-time (2/3) at the Chair of Public Finance and to adhere the teaching load of 4.7 hours per week during the semester What does this mean for a typical working week? Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Teaching and supportive work at the Chair Teaching and supportive work at the Chair Teaching and supportive work at the Chair Research Research Research Research (and maybe recreation )

6 Me as one of the Professor s assistants - Exemplary working week II 6 Working at the Chair from Monday to Wednesday comprises: 1. The preparation of courses 2. To hold courses 3. To do administrative work such as the maintenance of webpages, issuing Learning agreements, providing office hours for students etc. The remaining time can always be used for research purposes as there is no strict borderline between research and teaching This allows PhD Students to finish the doctorate within three years

7 Me as a young Researcher - Organisational Issues: Stages 7 From May 2008 until May 2009: My first year as the orientation time in order to - get the training necessary for teaching - get the training for supportive work at the Chair - figure out the right topic for the PhD Thesis - get to know the relevant skills for the research process From May 2009 until May 2010: My second year aims at beginning, structuring, and developing the thesis From May 2010 until (estimated) May 2011: Further research and writing the thesis

8 Me as a young Researcher - Organisational Issues: General idea to be developed with Mentor The Master Thesis The german business tax reform Allocative Effects was the first thematic step as its development revealed the necessity of taking an international view Especially with regard to the realization of the single market of the EU, tax reforms cannot be evaluated completely on a single country basis The sovereignty of direct taxation is still located on the member states level, although this yields enormous efficiency costs The vivid research in the field of direct taxation does not completely cover two main question: 1. Which international system of business taxation is able to reduce international obstacles and increase efficiency? 2. What steps must be undertaken to implement an advantageous system by increasing member states will to waive parts of their sovereignty? 8

9 Me as a young Researcher - Organisational Issues: The Feedback and Evaluation Process As almost all PhD Students do internal doctorates the feedback and evaluation process takes place continuously Nevertheless after each semester PhD Students additionally have to present their progress within the scope of an Internal Doctoral Seminar IDS - Each presentation takes 1 hour and is subject of discussion for at least 30 minutes - Feedback is been given by mentors as well as other PhD Students - Remarks and comments are discussed and included in further research Once per year the European Doctoral Seminar EDS (of 5 different universities) takes place which aims at broadening the PhD Students own view 9

10 Me as a young Researcher - Organisational Issues: Exemplary working week 10 Working for research purposes from Thursday to Sunday comprises according to the stage of the doctorate: 1. Working on literature 2. Working on own papers which are going to be published as BERG Working papers 3. Working on the actual PhD thesis Especially the creation and or modification of theoretical models as a time-consuming component of the working week Even more if there is a need for empirical work to be done

11 11 The topic of my PhD Thesis I Efficiency Aspects of Corporate Income Taxation in the European Union Necessity: - The EU does not have competencies in the field of direct taxation, although regulations of direct taxation effectuate the functioning of the single market - Member States rationality often significantly differs from the EU s rationality Need for a reconciliation as efficiency losses in terms of economic, compliance and administration costs should not be the case for a single market» Companies operating in the EU have to deal with up to 27 different systems of business taxation

12 The topic of my PhD Thesis II Aims: - One of the main goals is to develop a harmonized and coordinated system of business taxation in order to enhance efficiency - As all member states have to agree on the reform, it is crucial to consider compensation measurements 12 Instruments: - To increase the probability of implementation (the agreement of all member states) models are necessary which quantify spillover effects» Compliance costs, administration costs and risk is ignored in the literature, although these aspects alter the results significantly - A reform evaluation must take into account all costcomponents» Existing models at least must be modified and linked

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