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Social sciences
- Applied economics
Our research in business and economics is geared towards producing high-quality, mainly empirical, research aimed at publication in highly ranked journals. For the areas covered in this proposal (economics, banking, (corporate) finance, accounting), this objective requires permanent access to essential databases with granular raw data. They constitute the basic infrastructure to support all types of fundamental and policy-oriented research. This is in line with the evolution in research in business and economics towards more emphasis on rigorous empirical work. The big data revolution with improved data collection and access to detailed micro-data has had profound effects. Empirical research has shifted from a reliance on small-sample surveys to big data with (near-)universal population coverage. This has resulted in new quasi-experimental research designs and the use of natural experiments found in big data to analyse government policy and business decisions. Our research group has successfully engaged in this type of research, resulting in 71 high quality publications and 28 PhDs over the last years using these databases. Currently, 31 PhDs are in preparation and papers are finding their way into top journals. To continue our high-level research, access to basic databases is crucial. These databases are the backbone of our research and serve as an input to many research questions where basic data are transformed and complemented with unique project-specific data.