Empirical Project

My objective for this assignment is for you to apply the econometric methods (cross-sectional and panel data) that we will study in this class to an economic topic that interests you. Choose your research question carefully. Developing and motivating your research question entails a review of the existing economic literature, as well as consideration of data availability.

The empirical project accounts for 30 percent of your final grade in this course and will be due in stages over the course of the semester.

Overview of Assignments:

I. Research Question

The first stage should include a clear statement of your research question, as well as one paragraph explaining the ideal experiment that could be used to answer that question.

II. Research Proposal

The research proposal should be a minimum of five double-spaced pages in length, edited for spelling and grammar mistakes, and should include:

a clear statement of your research question
an introduction that motivates your research question
a review of the key studies that are most closely related to your research question and analysis of how your question fits into this existing literature
an outline of the econometric model you plan to use to answer your research question
a brief description of the data you plan to use in your application
a preliminary bibliography, minimum five sources

III. First Draft

Your first draft should be a minimum of ten double-spaced pages in length that reflects advanced work on your project. You must submit your first draft to me electronically. It should be properly formatted and edited, and should include:

a well-developed introduction and literature review
a detailed explanation of your econometric model
a detailed description of your data, including descriptive statistics in table form
a presentation in table form of your preliminary model results
the results of any tests of your model
an analysis of the results from your application
concluding discussion of the implications of your results, as well as any weaknesses in your approach
bibliography, minimum eight sources

IV. Peer Review

Research is a collaborative process. Even the best solo-authored papers undergo, and are improved by, rigorous scholarly review. In this spirit, I expect you to critically review the first draft of one of your colleagues. Your review should include:

a brief summary of the research question and methodology
identification of the paper's strengths
an evaluation of the appropriateness of the chosen methodology, the correctness of its implementation, and the resulting conclusions
suggestions for addressing any highlighted weaknesses
stylistic and organizational comments

I will assign 2 - 3 person peer-review groups. The groups will meet in class on the first draft due date for a peer-review session to discuss written comments.

V. Final Draft

Your final draft should be a polished revision of your rough draft, addressing all review comments. The text should be 12-15 double-spaced pages in length, excluding references. You should organize your paper following a standard economics journal article outline:

I. Introduction

Explain the motivation for your research question.
Why is your topic interesting, and what are your key findings?

II. Background and Literature Review

Briefly review the key, relevant papers that address your topic.
Frame your work within the context of the existing economic literature.

III. Methodology

Explain the econometric model that you will employ in your analysis.
Why is this model appropriate for your research question?
What are the limitations of your model for answering your research question?

IV. Empirical Application

Describe the data that your will use in your analysis.
Are there any weaknesses in how the data was collected or the variables that are included?
How well does your data match the assumptions of your model?

V. Results

Outline the major findings from your empirical application.
Include any relevant model test results.
Are there any surprises in your results?
Given the limitations of your model and/ or data, what caveats are important to highlight?

VI. Conclusion

Thoughtfully consider the contribution that you have just made.
Does your work support the findings of previous studies?
Do your results differ in any meaningful ways from those of other studies?
Are there any policy implications of your work?
Discuss possible directions for further research

VII. References

Your project should draw on the existing economic literature.
Direct quotes, as well as your own paraphrasing must be cited.
All references must be cited parenthetically in the text of your paper in (author, date) format.
Include your references in a separate section at the end of your paper, in alphabetical order by author, following University of Chicago style.
Minimum 10 peer-reviewed sources from the economics literature.

Example Empirical Projects