An Econometric Research Paper

 

The format of an econometric research paper is fairly standard.  You should use the following format to create the sections of your research paper.

 

1. Introduction/Overview:  What is it that you are trying to explore?  Why is it relevant? What do you hope to find?  What is the structure of the remainder of the paper?

 

2. Literature review:  What have other researchers found about the relationship between your dependent variable and your independent variables?

 

3. Model: What is your theoretical model? How are the variables defined? What are the expected signs of the variables?

 

4. Data and Descriptive Statistics: What data did you use to estimate the theoretical model?  What problems are inherent in the data?  Provide descriptive statistics for the variables in your model using both Excel and Stata.  Minimally, you should include a table that provides the variables, their definition, mean and standard deviation for all variables included in your theoretical model.  You should also provide scatterplots, crosstabs, frequency distributions and/or pie charts of relevant variables.

 

5. Results:  In this section you will present the regression results for your estimated model.  You will discuss why the specification for this model is correct.  You should discuss any econometric problems that you encountered and how you resolved the problem(s).  Finally, you should interpret your results; how do your independent variables affect the dependent variable?

 

6. Conclusions: A summary of what you were trying to find, what you have found and any policy recommendations or suggestions for further research. 

 

 

 

ECONOMETRICS RESEARCH PAPER

Description and Due Dates

 

This research paper will apply the econometric modeling and statistical techniques learned in class to data relating to a topic of your choice.  I will expect this paper will be your best work—of professional quality.  Throughout the term we will be discussing proper writing techniques as well as proper documentation of references.  Our class website will provide links to various data sources as well as writing aids.  You will be working on this paper for the entire term (so choose a topic of interest to you!).  Listed below are interim due dates for pieces of the research.  All components of this project must be turned in on time or you will not receive credit.

 

1. PROPOSAL                                                                                               Due January 31st   

In a short paragraph, you should describe the area of research that you would like to pursue in your paper. Please include possible sources for the data that you will collect.

 

2. ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY                                                            Due February 9th

At least 7 articles referenced properly (use APA format).  You should also include a synopsis of the article and how the information may be incorporated into your paper (i.e. why is this article important).  These sources should be journal articles.  You will not find econometric studies sufficient for this paper on the web, however some journals do have articles on the web.  Be careful if you use these articles, the tables are not usually included. 

 

3. ABSTRACT                                                                                               Due February 9th

In approximately one page, you should write a concise statement of the problem you are researching.  Using your annotated bibliography, comment on the previous research that has examined this problem.  List the source(s) of data that you will be analyzing in your paper.

 

4. MODEL                                                                                                     DUE February 16th

Please discuss your theoretical model.  Include a description of your dependent and independent variables as well as a discussion of the expected sign for each of your variables. Included in this discussion should be what previous research has shown concerning your variable. Also, indicate the data sources for each of the variables.

 

5. DATA AND DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS                                            DUE March 7th    

This write-up should include a discussion of all data sources that you have used for your project.  Furthermore, you should also discuss any possible econometric problems with your data.  Then, using this data, provide descriptive statistics for the variables in your model using both Excel and Stata.  Included in this should be a table that provides the variables, their definition, mean and standard deviation. 

 

6. INDIVIDUAL MEETINGS                                                                  Week March 27th –31st  

I will meet with you individually during this week.  At this meeting you should bring results that you have from regressions that you have run, a rough outline/draft of the introduction, literature review, model and descriptive statistics section of your paper and any questions that you may have regarding your paper. 

 

7. ROUGH DRAFT                                                                                       Due April 6th  

This should be the complete draft of your paper.  I will be grading these papers as if they were the final draft.  The more work you put into this draft of the paper, the better your grade will be on the final draft as I will be able to provide more comments and suggestions.

 

8. FINAL DRAFT                                                                                          Due April 27th   

The final draft of your paper will be due on April 22nd.  You will need to turn in your rough draft with your final version of the paper.  Moreover, I will need 2 copies of your final draft, one for me to grade the other to be part of the department’s writing assessment.