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研究生院Ph.D申请:最有学术震撼力的目的陈述

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          Statement of Purpose
    Program: Institutional Economics (Harvard University)




According to Random House Unabridged Dictionary (2nd Edition), the word “student” can be defined as either “a person formally engaged in learning, esp. one enrolled in a school or college” or “any person who studies, investigates, or examines thoughtfully.” As a student of economics, I have endeavored to conform to this definition not in an “either-or” manner but in a “both-and” fashion. This is because to be a student who receives the input of knowledge, though fundamental and essential, is nevertheless limited and passive. To compensate for this inadequacy, I have tried to be a thoughtful student who generates subjective output through critical inquiries, exercising my own subjectivity and creativity and making original contributions to the academic discipline I am so interested in.

The impulse toward a student of input and the impulse toward a student of output have been closely intertwined in me and have alternated throughout my intellectual development as an undergraduate at the Department of Finance, School of Economics, Peking University. At this century-old, most prestigious comprehensive university of China, which was the first to champion the development of science and democracy in contemporary Chinese history, I was taught how to learn and to inquire, to cultivate the spirit of skepticism and to subject even the most orthodox theories to the most rigorous challenges.

My immediate role model is Prof. Ma Yinchu who, a celebrated economist himself, served as president of Peking University during the late 1950’s. When he proposed the idea of birth control in his book New Theory on Population, he was accused of being anti-communist and was persecuted on the allegation that he planned to thwart the country’s massive “socialist construction” that required massive human resource. Forced to resign his presidency, he was deprived of the right to publish his research findings. Several decades later, however, amid China’s population explosion and its raging consequences, his theories prevailed and radical measures of birth control have been introduced. To a great extent, economists are the conscience of society who seek underlying truth even at their personal sacrifices, under the spirit of the free play of the mind.

In learning economics at a university which is so imbued with time-honored academic legacy and where are concentrated the best talents of the country, I did my best to become the elite of the elites so that I could prove myself her worthy student. Toward this objective, I undertook my academic work with great initiative. This not only led to my 3.63 GPA (including highest scores for quite a few core courses) in my specialty but also a second bachelor’s degree of science in mathematics and applied mathematics. In addition, I have completed a total of six research papers. Without any exaggeration, this achievement has been very phenomenal in the entire School of Economics.

Based on a comprehensive spectrum of coursework and confronted with the economic realities of the country, I found myself increasingly interested in industrial economics and institutional economics, branches of microeconomics that study specific factors directly related to economic growth. My strong proficiency in mathematical modeling laid the cornerstone for my research. Inspired by The Theory of Industrial Organization by Jean Tirole, I focused my first study on the “industrial clusters” in China’s eastern coastal regions. By constructing a highly simplified model, I demonstrated how China’s lack of a well-developed market mechanism and enterprise system has resulted in the formation of industrial clusters in the small and medium eastern cities and how an optimum pattern of labor division among the clusters contributes to an unparalleled regional competitiveness. The product of this research was two papers Mechanism of Formation of Industrial Clusters in Small and Medium Cities in China and The Advantages of Labor Division Among Industrial Clusters (the latter published this July in Economics Dynamics, a leading scholarly journal), in which the issues beyond the theoretical framework of mainstream economics models are addressed. The theoretical approaches generalized from this study can account for the “Friedman Puzzle”.

In a lecture hosted by deputy director of the Department, I made a presentation on the first paper, a core working paper of Economics Workshop, to the teachers and graduate students of our school in Nov. 20XX. This was an unprecedented event for an undergraduate. A similar event occurred when a graduate seminar, hosted by the vice dean of the School, was held on another core working paper of mine at the Workshop—Mechanism of Property Right Externalization of “Just in Time”. Through a model-based analysis of the just-in-time mechanism of management and management efficiency in the restaurant industry, my study demonstrates that the promotion of a new industrial system is determined not by the short-term improvement in management efficiency, but by the market incentive mechanism and the realization of large-scaled management.

My interest in industrial organizations motivated me to study the reform of China’s state-owned enterprises in my Share-Shareholder Voting System, published in Science and Technology Progress & Policy (04/20XX). Modeled on the representation pattern of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, I proposed a voting system that maintains the status of majority shareholder (the state) while maximizing the protection of minority (non-state investors) interests. My research achievements also include The Asymmetrical Factors of Differentiated Products, a critique of the symmetric monopolistic competition model of Avinash Dixit and Joseph Stiglitz, The Internal Stability Underlying the Fluctuations of Stock Market Prices, and The Divergent Model of China’s Insurance Market Dynamics and its Empirical Study.

Since this September, I have been undertaking my Master’s program at the Department of Economics, University of West Ontario. I was admitted and granted fellowship on the strengths of my distinguished academic performance, the research work performed and research papers I have published as an undergraduate. I am working on MA program (B), which is specifically offered to students who plan on continuing into the Ph.D. program. Concomitantly, I am working as TA, marking papers and running tutorials. The courses I am taking (together with the first-year doctoral students) allow me to further accumulate extensive background skills in macroeconomics, microeconomics, micrometrics and mathematics. By the time I complete my MA program (I have the confidence to be a straight-A achiever), I will have already taken all the classic courses in a standard Ph.D. program in north America.

Although my admission into the Ph.D. program at West Ontario is automatic upon my completion of the MA program, I choose to apply for a Ph.D. in the United States where scholarship on economics is reputed as the most cutting-edge. Most importantly, I am looking for a mentor whose research bears close affinity to mine—institutional economics. My careful study of the Department of Economics of Harvard University has enabled me to identify a potential supervisor—Prof. Oliver Hart—who is an Andrew E. Furer professor of economics. He can instruct me on such research topics as Theory of the Firm and Organizations. Among your selected PhD thesis titles, I am most interested in “The Organization of Productive Activities in Developing Countries: The Role of Business Groups”. I am convinced that I can enrich your Ph.D. program by contributing my special Chinese backgrounds, experiences and insights.

I fully agree with the existentialist proposition by Jean-Paul Sartre that existence precedes essence. In choosing the career path of an economics researcher, I wish to accomplish important missions. The special cultural, historical, ideological, and social conditions have produced special patterns of Chinese economy that do not fit into any neat categories of western economics and are not amenable to ready explanations. In its campaign to build up a “socialist market economy”, China has triggered drastic institutional changes over the past decade. Without incorporating the particularity of the institutional changes that happen in China, the mainstream Institutional Economics in the West would be incomplete. On the other hand, the number of Chinese economists with strong mathematical modeling skills and training in standard western economics is limited. In this regard, I see myself as a potential gap abridger.

In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith made the classic observation that individuals acting in their own self-interest can benefit society more than they expect to. In fulfilling my egocentric interest in doing scholarly work on economics, I wish to perform my sociocentric roles. My passion for economics makes me mission-bound. For me, to be or not to be an economist, that is not a question. My only question is whether I can work together with an elite professor whose guidance will help me develop my research potential to the fullest extent and become a high achiever — a true student of economics who does not work inside the romanticized ivory tower but intensely committed to the well-being of the larger society.

         目 的 陈 述
申请者:XXX 申请课程:制度经济学(哈佛大学)



依据Random House Unabridged Dictionary(第二版),“STUDENT”一词或可释义为“一个正式投身于学习的人,尤指学校或学院注册在读者”,或可释义为“任何一个以富有思想的方式进行研究、探索或剖析的人”。作为一个经济学的student,一直以来,我都在竭尽全力使自己合乎这一定义,不是以一种“两者取一”的方式,而是以一种“两者合一”的方式。这是因为,单纯作为一个接受知识“输入”的学生,虽然不乏其基本和本质的意义,却是有限的和被动的。为了弥补这一不足,我力图将自己培养成一个有思想的“学者”,通过批判性的质询,作出主观上的输出,发挥我自己的主体性和创造性,对我如此醉心于其中的学科作出我独特的贡献。

  在我身上,成为一个输入型“学生”的冲动和成为一个输出型“学者”的冲动密不可分地融合在一起,并在我作为北京大学经济学院金融系一名本科生的整个理智成长进程中交替发展,互相促进。在中国这所有着百年历史、声誉最为卓著、并在国家近代史上最早倡导发展民主与科学的综合性大学里,我被传授如何去学习和探究,培育怀疑主义精神,对哪怕是最为正统的理论,也要让它接受最为严谨的质询。

  我最直接的角色榜样便是马寅初教授。作为一名著名的经济学家,他在上个世纪五十年代后期曾任北大校长。当他在其著作《人口新论》中提出人口控制这一理念时,被指控有反共图谋并因此而遭迫害,理由是他意图挫败需要大量劳动力资源的宏伟的国家“社会主义建设”。他被迫辞去校长一职,并被剥夺出版其研究发现的权利。然而,数十年之后,在中国人口爆炸及其遗害肆虐时,其理论却占据了上风,激进的生育控制措施得以引入。在很大程度上,经济学家就是社会的良知,他们秉承心灵自由翱翔之精神,追寻深层真理,即使作出个人牺牲也在所不惜。

  在如此充盈着悠久学术遗产、全国天之骄子云聚的大学里学习经济学,我力图成为精英中的精英,这样,我才能成为无愧于她的学子。为着这一目标,我以巨大的积极性投入到我的学习中。这不仅使我的专业GPA高达3.63(其中有些课程夺得最高分),而且还获得了数学与应用数学的理学本科第二学位。此外,我还完成了六篇科研论文。可以毫不夸张地说,在整个经济学院,这样的成就甚为罕见。

  基于范围广泛的功课,又面对国家的经济现实,我发现自己愈发感兴趣于产业经济学和制度经济学,即微观经济学的两大分支,旨在研究与经济增长直接相关的特定因素。我强有力的数学建模能力为我从事研究提供了基石。在Jean Tirole《产业组织论》一书的启迪下,我将最初的研究聚焦于中国东部沿海地区的“产业集群”。通过构建一个高度简化的模型,我证明中国缺乏一个完善的市场机制和企业体制是如何导致东部中小城镇形成产业集群,以及这些集群之间一种最佳的分工模式又是如何促进了无可比拟的区域竞争优势。这项研究的产物是两篇论文——《中国中小城镇产业集群的形成机制》以及《产业集群的分工优势》(后者于今年7月发表于一份重要的学术杂志《经济学动态》)。我在文中探讨了主流经济学理论架构以外的某些课题,从该项研究中归纳出来的理论方法可用以解释“Friedman之迷”。

  在系副主任于20XX年11月份主持的一场讲座上,我就第一篇论文(该论文为经济学研讨班的核心工作论文)向全院老师和研究生进行了宣读。对于一个本科生而言,这是前所未有的。当经济学院副院长主持的研究生研讨班就我的另一篇核心工作论文——《产权外化适时制》——展开研讨时,类似的情况再度发生。通过对餐饮业适时制管理机制和管理效率进行基于模型的分析,我的研究揭示,一种全新的产业制度提升,并非取决于短期管理效率的改善,而是取决于市场激励机制和实现规模化的管理。

  我对产业组织的兴趣促使我在发表于《科技进步与政策》(20XX年4月)的论文《股份—股东投票法》中研究中国国有企业的改革问题。以美国参、众两院的代表模式为模型,我提出了一种投票制度,一方面可维持国家作为大股东的地位,另一方面也能最大程度地保护弱小群体(即非国家投资者)的利益。此外,我的研究成果还包括《差异化产品的不对称因素》,对Avinash Dixit和Joseph Stiglitz的对称垄断竞争模型进行了批判,以及《股票市场价格波动的稳定性分析》和《中国保险市场动态分岔模型及实证分析》等。

  自今年9月以来,我来到加拿大西安大略大学经济学系攻读硕士学位课程。我获得录取并被授予奖学金,这是基于我作为一个本科生出类拔萃的学业表现,所从事的科研,以及所发表的众多论文。我所攻读的是B类课程,专门面向准备继续攻读博士学位的学生。同时,我还兼做助教,批改作业,开设辅导课。我与第一年博士生一起上的几门课程使我得以在微观经济学、宏观经济学、微观计量学和数学方面进一步积累广泛的背景技能。当我完成硕士学业(我有信心成为全优学生)时,我将早已读完北美标准的博士学位中所有的经典课程。

  虽然在我获得硕士学位之际在西安大略大学攻读博士是水到渠成之事,但我还是选择申请在美国攻读博士学位,因为那里的经济学学术研究以最为前沿而享誉全球。最重要的是,我要寻找一位其研究与我自己的研究最能匹配的良师,能在制度经济学领域给予我有益的教诲。我对哈佛大学经济系的细致查询使我得以找到一位潜在的导师——Oliver Hart教授,一位Andrew E. Furer基金会经济学教授。他能在公司与组织理论这一领域指导我。在贵校博士论文课题选辑中,我最感兴趣的是“发展中国家生产活动的组织——商业团体的作用”。我相信,我可以贡献我特殊的中国背景、经验和见解,从而来丰富贵校的博士教学。

  我全然认同Jean-Paul萨特的存在主义命题,即存在先于本质。我选择走一条成为经济学研究者的道路,并希望履行某些重要的使命。特殊的文化、历史、意识形态和社会状况造成了中国经济的特殊模式,无法契合西方经济学中清晰的范畴,也无法获得现成的解释。在建设“社会主义市场经济”这场运动中,中国在过去十年中已触发了重大的制度变革。如果不兼顾在中国发生的制度变化的特殊性,西方的主流制度经济学将缺乏完整性。另一方面,拥有很强数学建模技能、受过标准的西方经济学训练的中国经济学家,数量却相当有限。在这方面,我将自己视为一个潜在的差距缩短者。

  在《国富论》一书中,亚当•斯密有这样一段经典论断,即为自己谋利者会以超乎其预料的方式造福于社会。从事经济学学术研究,我可以满足我的“个人中心主义”的兴趣,但我也希望能发挥我的“社会中心主义”的作用。我对于经济学的满腔热忱使我充满了使命意识。对我来说,未来是否成为经济学家,这根本不是问题。我唯一的问题是,我是否能与一位顶尖的教授合作,在他的指导下将我的研究潜能发展到极致,从而成为一个颇有建树者——一个真正的经济学学人,不是自囿于被浪漫化了的象牙塔,而是全身心地致力于更为广阔的社会的福祉。”

 


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