TOPICS IN (APPLIED) ECONOMETRICS

Term paper instructions

In your term paper you are supposed to do one of the following:

  • Perform an empirical analysis of the issue of your choice using the available data and appropriate econometric tools
  • Summarize and compare 2 or more empirical analysesof the issue of your choice done by other researchers

The term paper should be no more than 12 pages long and this rule will be strictly enforced. There is no lower limit for the number of pages. The lower limit is defined by the required contents of the paper (see the 2nd page).

The deadline for submitting term papers is Friday, May 21, 3pm. You should submit your papers in print (you might use the box standing by the Secretariat in the week of May 17-21).

Grading of the paper will be based on:

  • ability to discuss the model and its properties
    (like we did in lecture 1, for example)
  • presentation of an econometric equation that matches the discussion
    (like we did in lecture 3)
  • using the proper data
    (see lecture 4 and the following seminar)
  • understanding the pros and cons of the methodology (methodologies) that you (or the authors that you cite) use
    (lectures 5-8 and discussions during seminar sessions)
  • ability to interpret the results
    (discussions during seminar sessions + lecture 9 – to come after the presentations)
  • ability to use the feedback you got during presentation

Note that complexity of the methods used or number of alternative models presented are not the determinants of your grade.

The term paper with your own analysis should include the following:

  1. Short introduction to the topic (what are you investigating and why)
  2. Description of the relationship you expect there to be
    (this should include the discussion of potential explanatory variables as well as the shape of the relationship; if you are going to test some hypothesis, state it here – e.g. β2=1)
  3. Presentation of the basic econometric model
  4. Discussion of the model properties
    (are the OLS assumptions satisfied? if not, what does it cause? how are you going to deal with these issues, or how would you deal if you had access to better data)
  5. Presentation of results in table(s)
    (present one or more sets of results; e.g. one set for each method used)
  6. Interpretation of results & conclusion
    (do you trust the estimates? Are they as expected? What do they mean economically? What is the difference between the methods that you used? Test the hypotheses from point 2)

The term paper summarizing other papers should include the following:

  1. Short introduction to the topic (what are you investigating and why)
  2. Description of the relationship that is expected to be there
    (the papers which you summarize might assume the same relationship or might differ in their interpretation of the relationship)
  3. Presentation of different approaches towards estimation of the relationship
  4. What models the authors use and why?
  5. Do they make the same assumptions?
  6. Present a table comparing the results from different authors
  7. Interpret the results
    (do you trust the estimates? Are they as expected? What do they mean economically? What is the difference between the papers?)
  8. Conclude by saying which method you think is better and why