Research Paper Guideline ECON4983

The research paper should be about 20 pages, in Times New Roman font 12, double spaced.

Please use the Chicago Style:

A quick format guide:

http://cmosshoptalk.com/2017/07/18/how-do-i-format-my-paper-in-chicago-style/

A quick citation guide:

http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide/citation-guide-2.html

Deadlines:

Nov 14: Present research paper plan

Nov 21: Present at least 4 references

Dec 3: Draft is due

Dec 3 and 5: Present the research paper

Dec 10: Final draft is due

It could take one of three forms: A) a paper on the experiment project in part I; B) a literature survey of a topic covered in part II; C) an original empirical research paper.

A) Experiment Paper

The paper will include an introduction, brief literature review, experiment design, statistical analysis, conclusion, and references. The experiment may need to be redone if it was not done right the first time.

Grading Rubric:

Introduction: 10%

Describe the purpose of the paper, an overview of the hypothesis to be tested, the significance of the study and how it fits into the current literature.

Literature Review: 20%

These should be academic papers, either published or working papers, instead of blogs, commentary, or news articles. Summarize and synthesize all literature closely related to the hypothesis you test, and explain how your experiment contributes to the literature.

Experiment Design: 20%

Clearly describe all the details of the experiment design, especially how you try to tease out the confounding effects and to focus on the hypothesis being tested.

Statistical Analysis: 20%

Present tables or figures or statistics generated by the data you collected.

Conclusion: 10%

Summarize your hypothesis and main findings. Compare your findings with the literature and point out how your study contributes to the knowledge in the field. Discuss drawbacks of your study and suggestion of future research.

Reference: 10%

Please use author-date system in the Chicago style.

Writing Skill: 10%

Organization, clarity, academic writing, free of grammatical errors.

B) Literature Review

The paper will include an introduction, extensive literature review, conclusion, and references. As we proceeded through the semester, you have regularly written reading reports of assigned journal articles, and the research paper can build on these reports. In addition, you will be required to gather extra journal articles on the same topic, and summarize, criticize, and synthesize the literature to reach your own conclusion. You may also choose a topic of interest that has not been discussed in class.

Grading Rubric:

Introduction: 10%

Describe the purpose of the paper, an overview of the question(s) to be answered by this literature survey, and why it is important to answer such question(s).

Literature Review: 60%

The literature review should include the following three elements, but please do not organize your paper as such. Please refer to the literature review paper we have read for organization and style.

-Summarize the papers: 20%

These should be academic papers, either published or working papers, instead of blogs, commentary, or news articles. Provide brief summary of the papers being reviewed, such as topic, data, method, and conclusion, and do so in an organized and synthesized manner.

-Analyze the literature – Merits and drawbacks: 20%

Discuss the merits and drawbacks of the papers being reviewed so as to reach your own conclusion of which is a more convincing set of papers and which conclusions to adopt.

-Synthesize the literature: 20%

Divide the literature into sub-topics to better organize and summarize the papers. Find a way to form an overview of the literature, by topic, by data, by method, or by conclusion, etc. And to reach a conclusion based on the overview of the literature.

Conclusion: 10%

Summarize your question and main findings. Discuss drawbacks of existing studies and suggestions for future research.

Reference: 10%

Please use author-date system in the Chicago style.

Writing Skill: 10%

Organization, clarity, academic writing, free of grammatical errors.

C) Original Empirical Research Paper

The paper should include an introduction, data description, empirical model, results, and conclusion. This option is available for those who have taken the Econometrics course and would like an opportunity to apply the skills. If you choose this option, you should inform me by mid-semester and regularly meet with me to report your progress.

Grading Rubric:

Introduction: 10%

Describe the purpose of the paper, an overview of the hypothesis to be tested, the significance of the study and how it fits into the current literature.

Data Description: 20%

Describe the source of the data, and document the details of how you restrict the sample and construct variables, so that other researchers can replicate your work.

Empirical Model: 20%

Clearly describe the regression model, what control variables are included and why you include them.

Results: 20%

Present tables, figures, or statistics and interpret the results.

Conclusion: 10%

Summarize your hypothesis and main findings. Compare your findings with the literature and point out how your study contributes to the knowledge in the field. Discuss drawbacks of your study and suggestion of future research.

Reference: 10%

Please use author-date system in the Chicago style.

Writing Skill: 10%

Organization, clarity, academic writing, free of grammatical errors.

Group effort:

Please be an active contributor to your group’s project. Everyone will fill out a survey on the amount of contributions of every group member to the group project. Free-riding penalty policies can be found in the syllabus.

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