research paper

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ACADEMIC RESEARCH PAPER Developing the skills to write a scholarly research paper will serve you well throughout your career. This section of the course is

designed to equip you with the research skills and techniques you may require in your dissertation or at some point in your career.

A. Requirements: You would be required to integrate and synthesize all the research assignments to produce a scholarly

research paper. In essence, you would all have the same research topic or project that you would gradually develop, as the

semester unfolds, into a full-blown research paper.

B. You have the option to choose a different research topic. However, that would require you to apply the tools and techniques

on the research assignments in writing the paper, which in my opinion would be tasking and time consuming given the

duration of the course.

C. Below is the layout of the research paper. Please note that each research assignment will address specific section of the

paper. Thus, if you are diligent with the research assignments, you should be able to produce a scholarly research paper.

Research Topic: “Determinants of Economic Growth: A Cross-Country Empirical Study.”

1. Abstract

 Your abstract should summarize the significant aspects of the entire paper in a prescribed sequence that includes:

a. The overall purpose of the paper

b. Significant findings as a result of your analysis; and,

c. A summary of your interpretations and conclusions.

d. Include a section for Key words

2. Introduction

 Your introduction should consist of three distinct parts:

a. You should first give a general presentation of the research problem.

b. You should then lay out exactly what you are trying to achieve with this research paper.

c. Explanation of the organization of the remainder of the paper

3. Literature

 Discuss previous research that shows the relationship between the variables used and economic growth.

o Present some scatter plots

4. Data Description

 Describe the name and source of the data you are using and the period it covers.

 Describe whether you have a panel, cross-section or time series, what the unit of observation is and how many

observations you have.

 Discuss limitations of the data, if any, such as missing variables, missing observations, small number of

observations, etc.

 Present descriptive statistics of the data.

 Present correlation matrix of the variables.

5. The Model

 Specify the empirical model.

o Explain each of the variables used in the model and the parameters of interest

6. Empirical results

 Present the empirical findings in a table

 Discuss the empirical results.

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7. Research Conclusions

 Summarize the main points of the paper

 Identify any limitation (s) of the paper, if any.

 Present your recommendations.

8. References

 Reference should be based on APA format

9. Appendix

 A table of the variable names, description, and sources

 List of countries used in the study