ECON 7360: Homework II The University of Queensland 2020 Semester 2
Instructor: Rigissa Megalokonomou Due: 4pm on 4 Oct, 2020
The empirical project should be a maximum of 3 pages (not including the title page). The project must be word processed using 11 point font or larger.
1 Writing an Empirical Project
This HW offers general guidelines on summarising an empirical paper or project. We expect you to produce a sum- mary of an academic paper in less than 3 pages (not including the title page and potential references). You should choose one of the following two options to complete HW2: (i) Select one of the papers posted on Blackboard (I have posted some well-published papers but also very promising on the frontier recent studies from various fields–health, labor, education, history,immigration etc– to cover various interests), or (ii) Make your own choice of paper. In case you make your own choice of paper, I just remind you that this paper should use one of the techniques that you learnt about in this course (i.e., RCT, DinD, IV, FE, RE, RDD etc). If you want to analyse one of the papers that we talked about during the lecture or the tutorial, please 1) find it online, or 2) use the library computers to download the paper (please do not email us to download the research papers for you). Note that, in your writing, you do not have to include every section I talk about below. However, below I include a complete discussion of what an empirical paper involves since you may have to do one as a student (e.g. for your thesis or dissertation) or in your future job. Hence, I think it is useful that you see the complete structure that an empirical paper might have.
Important (1): This is an exercise to develop your independence and critical thinking in writing a report.
Important (2): Obviously, there is no ”right” and ”wrong” answer. Please do not copy and paste whole parts from the paper. Try to understand it and use your own words to summarise the paper following the themes that we describe below. We want you to pick up one paper, read it very carefully, understand it well and write a solid and easy-to-read report.
Take it as fun, because this is what research is about.
Important (3): Please try to submit the assignment on time. I am not allowed to accept late submissions (unless there are exceptional circumstances), so please try not to put me in the very uncomfortable position of not accepting a late submission. Please avoid to upload your article review summary at 3.50pm on the 4th of Octo- ber (and this is a general advice), because in the last minute it is always likely that unexpected things might happen.
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2 Description of a Typical Empirical Project
Economists are engaged in research in a wide variety of areas today. Undergraduate and graduate students, academic economists, policy-makers working in the civil service and central banks, professional economists working in private sector banks or industry may all need to write reports that involve analysing economic data. Depending on the topic and intended audience, the form of these reports can vary widely, so that there is no one correct format for an empirical paper. With this in mind, I provide common elements of economic reports below as a guideline for your future empirical work. Note, however, that, in the context of your own project or thesis, it may not be necessary for you to include all of these elements in your report.
1. Introduction. From a design point of view, the introduction to a paper is one of its most important parts. A reader that is confused by the introduction or who fails to see that the paper deals with an important or inter- esting issue is not likely to read the rest. And, if she does read on, she is less likely to get the main points. As a consequence, every introduction must consist of four parts:
(a) State the problem to be solved.
(b) Discuss the state of the art (i.e., previous work) and explain why, despite/because of this literature, there remains: (i) confusion; (ii) misunderstanding; (iii) errors; or (iv) some unresolved problem. Alternatively, present an empirical puzzle that the existing literature fails to explain. (This part also could be dealt with as separate section of literature review.)
(c) State the essence of your contribution, that is, your solution to the problem or puzzle. Give the reader a sense of how you solve the problem; provide some confidence that if she reads the rest of your paper, she has a chance of learning something.
(d) The last paragraph of your introduction often times is a ”road map” paragraph; for example: ”This paper proceeds as follows. In section 1 …”
Q) In your report, please identify (a), (b) and (c) in your choice of the paper and summarise these points in a way that is well understood to a more general audience.
2. Economic Theory. If the report is academic in nature and involves a formal theoretical model, then it is often described in this section. For policy reports you may not need to include a formal mathematical model, but this section allows you to describe the economic or institutional issues of your work in more details. Applied papers should not develop a theory for its own sake. Rather, the purpose is to develop just as much as needed to solve the problem posed in the introduction (the actual solving takes place in the next section).
Q) In your report, please provide the basic logic of the theoretical model and refer to the important numbers. Less than half of the applied papers have a formal mathematical model. In case the paper you chose has one, refer to the main points of the model and mention what it aims to explain. In case the paper you chose does not have one, no problem at all, just move on to the next section.
(Hint: The theoretical model is different from the econometric model. Your paper should have an econometric model, since this is an applied econometrics course. However, your paper is very likely to not have a theoretical model.)
3. Data. In this section a paper describes data, including a detailed discussion of its sources.
Q) In your report, describe the data set of your choice of paper. What is the source? Where is it from? Identify
a table showing the means of the variables, and the standard deviations in the paper if there is any.
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4. Econometric Analysis. In this section a paper discusses how it uses the data to investigate the particular economic questions of interest that imposed in introduction. The exact form of this section might vary considerably depending on the topic.
Q) In your report, identify the estimable equations and econometric techniques that your choice of paper uses. Also describe how the author justifies the econometric techniques used in the paper. Examine whether a theory/illustration discussed in 2 is relevant to the econometric techniques used in the paper. What are the econo- metrics issues – sample selection, omitted variables, simultaneity, or measurement errors? How does the paper handle these problems?
5. Result At this stage, the paper typically describes empirical findings and discusses how they relate to the economic issue(s) under investigation. Results also provide statistical and economic information. By economic in- formation we refer, for example, to the coefficient estimates and what these findings may imply for economic theory. In contrast, statistical information may include: results from hypothesis tests that show how coefficient estimates are significant; an explanation for deleting insignificant explanatory variables; etc. Typically, this information will be presented in tables and/or graphs.
Q) In your report, summarize the empirical findings of the paper and discuss how they relate to the economic issue(s) under investigation. Identify both statistical and economic information.
6. Conclusions. This part provides the main point of the paper. This can be in question/answer form or simply a short discussion of the problem and answer. ”In this paper, we have shown that…” Summarize for the reader what the paper’s main insights are and why the paper was able to do something that no one else has.
Q) In your report, state the main points of the paper.
HINT1: If you think that one or two figures are so important that you want to include them in your report, please do so. Please do not copy and paste whole tables.
HINT2: Please, try to enjoy this assignment. Pick up the paper you like the most from the list or outside this list and spend some time on it. It can be really fascinating!
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