Research Paper: Overview
One main product of the course is an original research paper you’ll produce that incorporates econometric data using the methods we’ve learned in class.
You can work alone or in pairs.1
Learning objectives
Develop clear, answerable research questions and link them to economic theory.
Identify and apply appropriate econometric methods to answer research question, recognizing necessary assumptions and limitations
Conduct and interpret original data analysis using Stata
Strengthen written and oral communication skills
Overview of requirements
All the nitty-gritty is below, but here’s a general sense of what I’ll ask you to do:
- You will write a journal-style paper in which you ask and answer an economic question, relying on regression analysis you conducte with cross-sectional or panel data.
- You’ll apply the various econometric techniques we’ve worked on throughout the semester.
The assignment specifications depend on whether you are working alone or in pairs:
| — | Alone | Pairs |
|---|---|---|
| Word count | 2500-3500 | 3500-4500 |
| Tables | 3-4 | 4-5 |
If you work in pairs, you will submit all assignments jointly, except for your referee report.
Topic selection
Select a research question that is interesting to you and answerable with data that you can obtain. Your question should accomplish the following.
It must have clear relevance to economic theory.
It must be answerable using data (with a sample size of at least 100, ideally much higher!)
It may not be an exact replication of previous work. It may, however, be an extension.
It must use cross-sectional or panel data. There are lots of interesting time-series questions, but we will not cover these topics in EC200. You should work with data from IPUMS.2
Research paper process
Research ideas
Prepare a set of 3 research ideas. An “idea” only needs to consist of about 2-3 paragraphs, which should include a research question, a hypothesis, a proposed data set, and a rough plan of analysis for testing your hypothesis.
Annotated bibliography
To make sure your question ties closely to the economic literature, you’ll prepare an annotated bibliography that identifies useful papers and summarizes them in relation to your quesiton.
Research proposal
From the list of topics, choose and develop one research idea for your research proposal. You’ll write up research proposal of at least 1000 words. This proposal should provide as much detail as possible to help me and your classmates assess your plan and provide useful feedback.
Peer review
A classmate will provide a peer review of your proposal, providing feedback to help you turn your proposal into a final paper
Rough draft (optional)
You may submit one rough draft to me for comments. This is optional, but I highly recommend you do it, because the early deadline can help you stay on track, and you’ll have a chance to get an early sense of how things are going.
Presentation
You’ll make a brief (5-10 minute) presentation of your paper in the final week of class. I will provide specifics later.
Final submission
Your final draft will be due on the same day as our final exam. Please make sure to review all the requirements carefully!
Paper components
A number of excellent guides can help you put together an effective and interesting research paper. I’ve provided a set of paper resources.
- Your paper should include the following elements.
Abstract & Title
You’ll need a title and an abstract
Descriptive title
Abstract that summarizes the paper and findings in 250 words or fewer
Introduction
In an economics paper the introduction stands alone!
That is, a busy (or tired) person could read the introduction and understand what you did, what you found, and why it matters. Our papers are not mystery novels—there’s no need for a plot twist on page 8!
I recommended following introduction formula, which is written for folks writing a longer academic paper, but the principles are still solid.
Guidelines and structure
Introduction reads like an academic article. Motivates, describes what you do and what you find. (Almost like a mini-paper!)
- Reader can infer all main points of paper just from introduction
States your research question clearly
Explains what economic theory says about the potential answers to your questions, and/or defines clear hypotheses that you test
Describes why your topic is important
Describes what you do
Describes what you find
Describe how it contributes to our knowledge
Background/Literature Review
What you include here depends on topic. Sometimes the reader needs to know how your question links to economic theory. Sometimes it’s more important to know specific context first, and then to turn to the literature. Sometimes it’s most important to summarize what the literature already knows. Your call.
At the back of your mind, when motivating your paper, ask “what is the link to economics”?
If studying discrimination, what does economic theory tell us about why discrimination exists/persists
If studying stock market returns, what do economic models tell us about our ability to predict returns?
Includes papers that have answered your research question (or similar research questions)
Research results described in present tense (“Smith finds,” not “Smith found”)
Papers are put in context. That is, rather than just listing paper A and finding, paper B and finding, etc, you link each one (or group) to their contribution (as relates to your research question)
Methodology/Data
Describe the data you use, where did it come from? If you didn’t create it, cite it
What is the unit of observation? Is it people, households, states, etc? Make sure the unit is appropriate to your question
If you’re working with individual-level data, what is the age range you want in your sample? What years of data do you need?
If dealing with labor force variables, do you want all people of working age, all those who are in the labor force, or all who are employed?
Describe your methodology. Are you estimating a model using OLS? If so, say so.
Clarify whether we are looking at causal estimates or something else. What are the estimated parameters of interest. What do they mean?
Correct standard errors: robust? Clustered? Something else?
Population model
Write out your population model!
If you’re using Word, use equation editor. Make it look nice.
Don’t forget the error term!
Use proper equation notation (\(\beta\), \(u\), etc)
Use appropriate subscripts (\(i\), \(t\), \(y\), etc)
All relevant variables explained/defined
Use descriptive variable names when possible (ie use \(female\) for women, not \(w1\))
Make sure your variables are written correctly - an equation like \(wage = \alpha_0 + \alpha_1 race\) doesn’t make sense - race isn’t continuous!
If you are using a lot of categorical variables and find it awkward to write them out, you can simplify:
- Showing that you have state fixed effects:
\[y_{st} = \beta_0 + \beta_1 X_{st} + \beta_2 Z_t + ... + f_s + u_{st}\]
and the in the text, “…where \(f_s\) is a vector of state fixed effects”
- Including a set of occupational dummy variables \[y_{st} = \beta_0 + \beta_1 X_{st} + \beta_2 Z_t + ... +\sum^K_{s=1}\delta_SD_s + u_{st}\]
and in the text, “…where \(D_k\) is a dummy variable for occupation \(s\), from \(s \in [1,S]\)” (or something in that general spirit)
Results
When using categorical/dummy variables, what is your omitted category? Make sure you know and that it’s clear.
What are the units of your measures? Is that percent or percentage points?
Discuss using a reasonable number of decimal places (usually only 1 or 2)
Limitations or Discussion
Include as a separate section or integrate into results
What might us from making causal interpretations about our coefficient of interest?
Omitted variable bias?
Reverse causality?
Measurement error?
Are the results externally valid?
What other considerations are important?
Conclusion
Brief summary of paper (yes, another summary)
Limitations (summary of limitations/discussion section)
Implications for policy (if relevant)
Implications for future research
Tables
You will need the following tables:
- Descriptive statistics: This will present key information about your datat set that we will need to understand your context. Choose relevant variables to describe, including key dependent and independent variables
- Main regression results: This will be a table of your key specifications. You may have the results from a few regressions in the same table. It’s this table that would be the “takeaway” table
- Secondary regression results: Results that help dig deeper, consider subgroups, consider related hypotheses or outcomes, etc.
How you arrange regressions between (2) and (3) will depend on how you structure your argument.
Additional tables (especially two-person papers) will extend your analysis through other modeling approaches, other dependent variables, additional displays of robustness.
You may also include figures, but they would not substitute for the required tables unless the figures themselves presents new results.
Please embed tables near the place where they are referenced (rather than at the end)
Tables should be properly formatted. That is, they should be made in Excel (or LaTeX) and NEVER copied and pasted out of Stata raw output
Variables should be described using real words. That is, “number of children,” not `numchld.’
Tables and figures should be numbered (Table 1, Table 2, etc… Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.) and should also be given a title. Refer to tables by their numbers in the text.
Regression tables include standard errors. Use stars to indicate statistical significance. (The Stata package
outreg2is a big help!)In most contexts, about 3 places past the decimal point is right, but it depends on the magnitudes. If you really want to be precise, set and stick to a reasonable number of significant digits. There’s no place for a number like 0.05403823 or 0.0000000 in your tables.
References
You’ll use outside sources in your introduction and background/literature review, at a minimum. Make sure that you have (1) at least 5 academic sources (published academic journals), and (2) at least 8 sources total (could also include working papers, newspaper articles, policy papers, etc.)
Make sure to cite your data (does not count for totals above)
Use footnotes, not endnotes
At the end of your paper, include list of references cited
You can format using APA, MLA, or Chicago style, but it must be a consistent style
- Citation Owl or Google Scholar will do it for you
- Microsoft Word’s bibliography management system can be hard to work with. Beware!
In-text, cite with author and year (Author, Year; Author, Year) or (Author Year, Author Year)
Do-files/logs
You must also submit the following:
- Stata do-file that replicates your analysis
- Log-file that shows your results fron running your do-file
These do not count toward your page limit, and they should be submitted as separate files.
Style
Use present test and first-person active voice! (I estimate a regression, NOT “A regression is estimated”)
Single-authored paper first person singular, “I.” (You’re not the queen!)
Joint-authored paper first person plural, “we.”
Don’t believe me? Check out any economics paper published in the past 20 years. There’s some variation in I vs. we, but a lot of active voice.
Divide paper into numbered, labeled sections.
A research paper is not an essay!
Personal opinions don’t have a place
Sources should be primarily academic (peer-reviewed journals, working papers, etc.), maybe some non-academic sources for motivation only
Clear, labeled sections
Deadlines
See course schedule for deadlines. Submit materials by 11:59pm on the deadline. Submit all assignments via Blackboard. (Late assignments without an extension will be penalized 10% per day, and they may not receive detailed feedback.)
Grading
I will provide formal or informal grading rubrics for each component, so you have a clear idea of how you’ll be graded.
| Process | 30% | |||
| Research ideas | 5% | |||
| Annotated bibliography | 5% | |||
| Research proposal | 10% | |||
| Peer review | 5% | |||
| Rough draft | 0% | |||
| Presentation | 5% | |||
| Final draft | 70% |
FAQ
How does my group size affect grading? The grading rubric is the same regardless of your group sizes. However, I expect that in a larger group, your analysis will go deeper, your review of the literature will be more comprehensive, you’ll have additional robustness or placebo tests, etc. See the page requirements for a guide. If you have questions, feel free to talk with me in more detail.
Can I turn in a paper with 10 pages of text and 3 tables, or 10 pages of tables and 5 pages of text? So long as the word and exhibit count are met, there’s no “right” place to be in that! What matters most is that your paper clearly addresses your research question.
My results aren’t statistically significant, should I start over? NO. Remember that our goal her eisn’t to find statistically significant relationships, it’s to answer questions. Let the data speak for itself about what relationships are or are not there.
How should I format my citations and bibliography? Consistently. APA, Chicago, or MLA is fine.
How much data analysis do I need to do? You should incorporate data analysis to answer your research question or test your hypotheses. You may also use data to provide some descriptive statistics, however that alone would not be sufficient. Exactly how much analysis is involved will depend on the question you pose and your approach to answering it.
Do I have to use Stata? You can use an alternative programmable language like R or Python. Your analysis should not be conducted in Excel. My ability to support your programing in languages besides Stata is more limited.
Do I have to use IPUMS data? I’m open to other possibilities, but it must be approved by me first.
What if I’ve worked on this topic for another class? This can work, but first talk to me so we can figure out a plan that ensures you’re building beyond what you’re already doing.
Recommendations
See paper resources for dataset and topic suggestions.