please do it quick

Term Paper Assignment Guidelines and Evaluation Criteria

Instructor: Constantin Colonescu Course: Econ 399∗

March 18, 2016

Contents

1 Assignment 2

2 Find an Appropriate Research Topic 2

3 Articulate a Meaningful Research Question 3

4 Compile a Relevant Literature Review 3

5 Collect and Organize Data Efficiently 3

6 Build Correct and Thoughtful Models 4

7 Write a Clear, Cohesive, and Coherent Paper 5

8 Evaluation Criteria 5

∗This document is typed in LATEX

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1 Assignment

Write an Econometrics research paper1 using the methods studied in the Econ 399 course at MacEwan University. The paper shall be 8 to 10 page long excluding an op- tional Appendix, use Times New Roman of size 12 or equivalent, be double-spaced, and follow the APA documentation style. A summary of the APA style is avail- able on Blackboard. The paper shall use only the econometric package Gretl for the quantitative analysis part. Submit your paper in Word format, together with your Gretl script file and Gretl data file on Blackboard. The paper shall include only, and all of, the following parts: Title Page, Abstract, Introduction, Lit- erature Review, Method and Data, Results and Analysis, Conclusion, Works Cited, and, optional, an Appendix. Any hint of plagiarism, as defined by our university’s policies will be severely penalized.

2 Find an Appropriate Research Topic

A research topic could be a micro- a macroeconomic problem. An appropriate research topic is one that is interesting (your target audience should find a reason to read your paper), it is neither too broad nor too narrow. Writing about the relationship between longevity and education in your family is too narrow. Seeking for the effect of an increase in national parks fees on the snowshoe sales is too narrow, unless you are employed by a snowshoe producer (you are not: for the purposes of this project, you are wearing the shoes of a student in an Econometrics class, irrespective of your private employment status). Seeking for the determinants of global warming is too broad a topic.

Here are some examples of topic categories that may inspire you: workplace relationships and discrimination, individual decisions about spending, saving, where to live, whether to buy or lease a car or an apartment, to go to college or work; the structure or prices for specific goods or services; the structure of a particular market, such as the market for credit cards, notarial or legal services, retail banking, financial assets, beer, TV programs, internet videos, online retail services, and ice climbing guided trips (maybe too narrow); interest rates, taxes, micro and macroeconomic policies and their effects, economic growth in a particular country or in a cross section of countries or provinces, government spending, or urban development; environment;

1Unless you specifically advise me otherwise, you implicitly allow me to submit your paper, on your behalf, to our department’s “best paper award” that takes place every year at the end of the spring semester. I shall decide whether to submit it or not. You are free, however, to submit it yourself if you so desire; you do not need my permission to do so.

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the health system; the education system; and the effect of unemployment benefits on unemployment. There are many web resources, such as http://goo.gl/Fsu7cF, listing potential research topics and providing tips about how to find one.

3 Articulate a Meaningful Research Question

Once you have determined an approximate topic, try to figure out what intrigues you about that topic and formulate a specific question that your paper will answer. Within your topic, the question should be broad enough to be of scientific interest for the economic community (to advance knowledge in Economics) or to be of practical interest for a broader category of people, but narrow enough to be feasible. Examples: The question ”What is the cost of building a bridge over the Saskatchewan river?” is too narrow a question because it does not enrich our understanding about how things work, unless you prove otherwise; such a question is also improper for this course because it does not require the use of econometric methods, unless you reasonably claim otherwise; The question ”How is the Health System in Canada Organized?” is too broad and requires extensive description rather than quantitative analysis. Yes, your question should involve gathering data, applying a quantitative method studied in our Econ 399 course, and testing hypotheses. The feasibility of your research question is determined by the time you have to write your paper (not too much left!), by the material studied in Econ 399, by the data you can find, and whether your thesis can be formulated as a testable hypothesis.

4 Compile a Relevant Literature Review

Search for related academic literature and identify similar work. A good place to start is our library’s Economics web page and our library database access (look for the Econlit and JSTOR data bases); another place is Ideas (https://ideas. repec.org/). Make notes and save references to include in your literature review and bibliography.

5 Collect and Organize Data Efficiently

Collect, clean, and organize data. Here are a few data sources: CHASS at Univ. of Toronto (http://sda.chass.utoronto.ca/sdaweb/sda.htm), Penn World Ta- bles at CHASS (http://datacentre.chass.utoronto.ca/pwt/), Quandl (https:

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//goo.gl/wFZJVx), WDI (http://goo.gl/HOaHVR), Eurostat (http://ec.europa. eu/eurostat/data/database) and more at MacEwan Library data web page (http: //goo.gl/VchFVP). Data librarian Tara Stigliz and economics librarian Robyn Hall may be able to help you to get data for which access is restricted. A very handy source of data is Gretl itself: just select ‘File - Databases - On Database server...’ and choose your source.

Optional: There is a simple way of collecting data from WDI and Quandl, which requires basic knowledge of the statistics package R (https://goo.gl/SVbkDi). Here is an example of R code to import data from Quandl:

l i b r a r y ( d e v t o o l s ) i n s t a l l g i t h u b ( ’ q u a n d l /R−p a c k a g e ’ ) l i b r a r y ( Quandl ) q u a n d l d a t a=Quandl ( ”NSE/OIL” , c o l l a p s e=” monthly ” ,

s t a r t date=”2013−01−01” , t y p e=” t s ” )

Here is an example of R code for importing WDI data:

l i b r a r y (WDI) c o u n t r i e s <−c ( ”BR” , ”CA” , ” IT ” ) v a r i a b l e s <−c ( ”NY.GDP.MKTP.KD” , ”NE . GDI .TOTL.CD” ) WDI <−WDI( c o u n t r y=c o u n t r i e s , i n d i c a t o r=v a r i a b l e s ,

s t a r t =2012 , end =2013)

Once you have collected the data in R, you can save it under the CSV format and import it into Gretl. However, you do not necessarily need R for collecting data. Whatever your source is, you should be able to create a CSV file and import it into Gretl.

6 Build Correct and Thoughtful Models

You need to explain your choice of the variables that you include in the model and your choice of the functional form. You also need to describe the data and define each variable. It is advisable to run a few models and present the results in a summarizing table. Do not include extensive computer output in your paper unless you refer to the the extra information in your text. Test hypotheses in order to answer your research question.

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7 Write a Clear, Cohesive, and Coherent Paper

Most writers start with a plan, a road map to keep the writing on track and clarify for themselves the logical structure of the paper. The plan is not, however, definitive; it can, and it probably will change in the process of writing, but all the updated versions of the plan should be coherent (have a clear and correct internal logic). Write a first draft and enrich it afterwards with better style, grammar, and new ideas. Reserve a couple of days after finishing your paper to let it mature, after which work on making final and fine adjustments. You may wish to show your paper to a friend who could give you feedback about clarity and style. Then, finish the APA requirements and complete the “works cited” section. Finally, submit your paper, Gretl script file, and Gretl data file on Blackboard.

8 Evaluation Criteria

The paper receives up to 10 points for each of the following attributes:

1. The paper follows closely the APA documentation style, including overall for- matting (title page, abstract, running head, title, author, course, and date); The title summarizes in a few words the main aspect of the thesis; Correct use of APA in formatting the in-text citations and the “works cited” section

2. Appropriate economic topic; Meaningful research question; Clear, elaborated, interesting, and original thesis

3. Well crafted introduction (question, motivation, background, thesis)

4. The Literature Review part is reasonably extensive and well integrated with the research question, method, and thesis

5. Correct data definitions and data organization; a summary statistics table is shown in the paper or in the Appendix

6. Correct application of econometric methods: the author uses tests to detect possible violations of the model assumptions, uses hypothesis tests to support the thesis, correctly chooses the functional form and the variables

7. Pertinent explanation of how the model is constructed and what its problems might be

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8. Pertinent discussion and interpretation of the results; The paper acknowledges and addresses opposite or different views; The “Conclusion” section wisely summarizes the logic of the paper and the main findings without annoying repetition, and evaluates the paper’s contribution; It suggests directions of further elaboration

9. Style: clarity, cohesion, and coherence at all levels: paper, part, paragraph, and sentence; The paper avoids wordiness, it is easy to read, and captures a reader’s attention. Useless to say, grammar is important

10. Submission to Blackboard: paper in Word format, Gretl script file (obviously in Gretl format), and Gretl data file (obviously in Gretl format). The script and the data file shall be in working condition so that I can replicate your results

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