Empirical Project

Imagine you are a macro analyst at a large investment bank. You will find and explain five empirical facts drawn from macro data. You may use any data from the St. Louis’ Fed’s FRED database or the Penn World Tables. A completed assignment will present each fact using a separate well documented figure or table spanning at most one page, which will form part of a document which is at least seven pages long in total. You may double space the document if you wish. The rest of the document, other than the fact tables or figures themselves, must provide an introduction, an explanation of the calculations and derivations you used, a discussion of the meaning of the facts, and a discussion of the significance of the facts. The facts must be true, non-trivial, related to some topic in the course, related to each other, and have some importance to a person without a macro background.1 You may work in groups of no more than 5 students, listing members. You must not plagiarize. Cite and document any sources you use. Write understandably to persons without a macro background.