Imagine that you have decided to research the topic of decision-making in households in relation to quality of
life OR human capital. Specifically, you want to investigate whether there is support for theories of household
decision-making and whether there is any evidence that different approaches to decision-making have a
differential impact on either quality of life or human capital formation.
i. Prepare a plan for a semi-structured interview – based on theories of decision-making in households –
with individuals who live in couples. The plan might include a statement of interview aims, i.e. the
research question the interview seeks to address; a set of questions to be asked, which might be
grouped into themes if appropriate; and a brief indication of how the findings will be used and analysed.
ii. Recruit a volunteer to be interviewed, and use your list to undertake the interview, based on your
research question. Keep the interview quite short – no longer than ten minutes. To complete this
exercise, you will need some results from the interview (in the unlikely event that the first interview is not
informative or calls for a complete rewrite of your questions, it might be prudent to find another
interviewee).
iii. Write up your notes on the responses of your interviewee(s).
iv. Code these notes using headings relevant to your research question. If possible, use economic theory to
help with your headings and coding.
v. Write a brief summary of your findings from the interview(s).
vi. Finally, make short notes on the interview experience: what aspects were successful and what would
you do differently another time?
