ECN 405/605
Course Writing Project—Part 1
Topic Selection and Description
Assignment Objectives:
1.
2.
3.
4.
To choose a research question for econometric analysis.
To do a literature search identifying three scholarly journal articles
pertinent to your research question.
To broadly outline the dimensions of the question you are interested in.
To identify relevant data sources.
In this first assignment you will pick a topic to work on during the term, you will conduct
a small literature search and will learn something about your topic in the process, and you
will summarize your research question and what you have learned in a 500 word essay.
Note that Chapter 19 of the textbook is pertinent to the whole of our course writing
project. Passages of particular relevance to this part of the writing project are pp. 668671 and pp. 678 (middle)-679 (all but the last 5 lines).
As noted on the syllabus, the over-arching objective of the course writing project is for
you to apply the econometric methods learned in this course to a research question of
interest to you. The first step, then, is for you to identify a specific variable (your
dependent variable) that you wish to study. How to do this? A variety of possibilities
come to mind. First, you may already have a research question you wish to pursue.
Second, as noted on the syllabus, a good source of ideas is your other classes. Are their
relevant topics that have come up in your other classes that would lend themselves well
to an econometric analysis? Third, in Chapter 19 of the textbook (pp. 687-692)
Wooldridge lists 30 sample empirical projects. You could conduct one of these. Fourth,
the Data Sets Handbook (click on the textbook’s web site link in the ECN 405/605 part of
my webpage to access this) that accompanies the textbook’s data files describes a number
of studies. You could follow up on or use one of these studies as your inspiration.
Once you have picked a topic for study, send me an e-mail (murphy@oakland.edu)
stating in a couple of sentences what it is you want to do. All I’m looking for in your email is a statement from you that relates the behavior of your variable of interest to the
behavior of an explanatory variable that you think is of primary importance in explaining
your dependent variable. As long as what you propose is reasonable, I will reply with an
approval for your project. If there are problems with what you propose (for example,
data are non-existent or perhaps another student has proposed the same topic), then I will
reply and tell you to come up with a different topic. Your e-mail to me is due by
6:30 pm, Tuesday, September 21.
Once I have approved your topic, I want you to write a 500 word essay that
accomplishes the following tasks:
1.
Describe your research question. What is your dependent variable? What
is your primary independent variable? What kind of relationship do you
expect to find between your independent variable and your dependent
variable? Why? What is your theory?
2. Find three scholarly journal articles that address some aspect of your
topic. Use one (or some) of the search engines available from Kresge Library
to do your literature search. Good search engines for economics and business
are JSTOR, EconLit, and ABI/Inform. They can all be accessed by going to
Kresge Library’s web site and clicking on Find Articles> Databases by
Subject > Economics. In your essay, briefly discuss the main findings of and
relevance of these articles to your proposed work. This type of information
can usually be gleaned from the article’s abstract, introduction, and
conclusion. Be sure to append a proper bibliography of the three articles
you’ve selected. [Look at the bibliography in any article in a recent issue of
the American Economic Review to find examples of how to properly cite
scholarly work.]
3. Describe your source(s) of data for the project. Where will your data come
from? What are the units of observation (i.e., people, firms, states, countries,
etc.,)? How many observations are there? When were the data collected?
[Note that I have a number of “Economic Data Links” on my web page.]
Your paper must be submitted to me as a hard copy by the due date given below. Your
paper should be typed and double-spaced in 12 pt font. Rules of good essay writing
apply. Your essay should consist of an introduction, body, and conclusion. Your
paragraphs and sentences should be coherent and logical. Your sentences should be
grammatically correct. I grade both on substance of discussion and on writing style.
DUE DATE: Tuesday, October 5, at 6:30 pm.