HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT
GUIDELINES FOR RESEARCH PAPER
One of the requirements of this course is for students to write a research paper on your desired
economic thinker or school of thought. If done properly, writing research/ term paper is a
rewarding experience during your studies. If done right, this research paper can later be used as a
sample of writing when applying for jobs and/or different graduate programs.
The following document has been prepared to help students with general and specific guidelines
for writing the research paper.
SPECIFIC

One way to approach this assignment is
 To review the economic ideas of some thinker who is NOT covered extensively
during the course for instance Thornton or Hayek (please select an author that
interests you),
 the course mainly focuses on the economic thought of western thinkers hence it
would be a great idea if you could focus on economic ideas of other regions like
East Asia for Confucianism, Middle Eastern thinkers, Indian thinkers like Sen or
Kautila etc.,
 Or one can study and review the evolution of economic thought on a particular
economic concept or idea (of your interest) for example evolution of economic
thought on environment, labor theory etc.
 Apart from the above ideas, if you think you have any different idea for this
assignment, please do not hesitate to discuss it with me.
(NOTE: please do not solely rely on the secondary source of texts. I would highly encourage you
to complement it with the primary source i.e., reading the original text of the thinker; it will add
depth to your research paper)

Avoid excessive use of direct quotation. Cite and use them use when you need to emphasize
something of great importance or an unusual comment like Keynes “in the long run, we
are all dead” or Descartes “I think, therefore I am”. Please make sure that direct quotes are
single spaced and in italic

Avoid giving dull and lengthy account of economic ideas of the thinker without critically
evaluating or analyzing it. You are in your senior year, so do not forget to include your
own analysis and clearly state your conclusions

Make the paper readable with a proper introduction (introduce your topic, state the outline
of the paper), main body and a clear conclusion. Make careful use of headings and sub
sections/headings

To secure a decent grade, you will have to consult a wide range of sources. I would
recommend reading minimum 7-8 and maximum can be up to 12-14 journal articles (One
can start their research from tertiary sources like newspaper articles to generally develop
an initial understanding of some concept but please avoid quoting them and giving their
references)
GENERAL

The required word limit for this research paper is 2500-3000 words (excluding the title
page, abstract and references)

The title page of the paper must have the name of the university, department and school
followed by title of the topic, name of the authors and their student no. All this information
needs to be centrally aligned as is expected from a title page (please see Appendix 1)

The title page must be followed by an abstract, in italic, the word limit for which is 100120 words only (please see Appendix 2)
(NOTE: an abstract is a short crisp summary of your paper)

Use Times New Roman, font size 12 with line spacing 1.5

Footnotes (if used) need to be in font size 10 and must be single spaced
(NOTE: footnotes are placed to provide short explanations, digressions, minor arguments, etc.;
avoid too many footnotes)

The entire document (except the title page) should be numbered at the bottom of the page

Indent all new paragraphs

Read and reread your paper for typos, spelling mistakes and any other errors.

Do not forget to cite your paper by following any standard and consistent style. I would
recommend using APA or Chicago. Please remember quoting someone’s work as your own
is a serious academic offence and you will be penalized for it as per IBA’s plagiarism
policy.
APPENDIX 1
Institute of Business Administration
Department of Economics
School of Economics & Social Sciences
Ibn-e-Khaldun theory on Population
Ayesha (19487)
Shahrukh (20768)
Course Paper for ECON 467 – History of Economic Thought
Instructor: Ms. Javeria Younas Abbasi
IBA, December 2022
APPENDIX 2
Abstract
This study investigates the relationship between carbon emissions, income, energy consumption, and
foreign trade in Pakistan for the period 1972–2008. By employing the Johansen method of cointegration,
the study finds that there is a quadratic long-run relationship between carbon emissions and income,
confirming the existence of Environmental Kuznets Curve for Pakistan …. (Sample abstract)