(FEB NEWS) Surabaya, October 28th – "Research isn't just about finding out what's out there but research is also a tool for determining policies that have an impact on the wider community". Policy-based research or policy research is important because it can help the government in making policies based on data and research. Policy research is used for evaluating government policies, knowing the achievements of government policies, and providing input to the government.

To provide insight for students about conducting research based on policy research, the Department of Economics, Universitas Airlangga held a guest lecture with the theme "How to Do Policy Research" together with Prof. Anu Rammohan from The University of Western Australia. The guest lecture was led by Lecturer of the Department of Economics of Faculty of Economics and Business of Universitas Airlangga (FEB UNAIR), Haura Azzahra Tarbiyah Islamiya, SE., M.Sc., as moderator and translator. This event was held at the KRMT Tirtodiningrat Hall, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Airlangga on October 28th, 2022. The guest lecture was attended by undergraduate students in Development Economics, Masters Degree in Economics, and Doctoral Degree in Economics.

To choose ideas and develop policy-based research, Professor Anu emphasized that by looking at the existing policies, do the policies implemented have an impact on the targeted policy makers?

There are three important things that need to be considered before conducting policy research, such as choosing policies that are interesting, relevant, and have been implemented; data availability; and interesting things that can be analyzed in the data. These three things are important to consider. Professor Anu also emphasized the importance of communication skills for a policy researcher. Communication skills for researchers are important to communicate research results and evaluate government policies. In addition to communication, a researcher must also be able to use language that is relevant and easily understood by policymakers. "Instead of providing regression results that confuse policymakers, communicating the regression results in simple language is more important," said Professor Anu.

The presentation closed with the presentation of Professor Anu regarding the “do's and don'ts” when conducting policy research. Several things need to be done such as making a good quality research; know the process and context of policy making; as well as knowing and building relationships with key stakeholders and regularly engaging policy makers.

 “Be humble. Act like you don't know anything. And don't act like you know the policy." closed Professor Anu.