Research Paper: Idea Proposal

The assignment

1. In short, come up with three research ideas and give me a bit of detail. It should include the following, and will likely span 2-3 paragraphs per research idea:

• A research question
• A hypothesis/hypotheses
• A proposed data set
• A rough plan of analysis.

All ideas should meet the basic criteria in our assignment overview (relevant to economic theory, answerable using data, use cross-sectional or panel data)

2. Set up a meeting using Calendly to meet with me to discuss your idea proposal. We need to meet within one week of the deadline (October 7 at the latest).

Coming up with an idea

For some of you, this may be the best. For me, being told, “think of an idea … go!” is the WORST. That’s okay!

So here’s some advice.

1. Read Nick Huntington-Klein’s excellent chapter on research questions¹

2. Jot down every question you can think of. If you need inspiration, open up a newspaper of your choice. I highly recommend the NYTimes Upshot, which has lots of data-driven, economics-linked questions.

3. Browse through data set possibilities and see if they spark joy

4. Start with some suggested research ideas from Wooldridge and iterate from there.

Other questions?

• So I have a paper from another class … If you’ve worked on a topic for another class, that’s fine to keep working on it here. However, it’s important that the work you do for EC200 be original and an additional contribution beyond what the work for your other class. So same topic = okay, but same paper = not okay

• If I have a partner, what does this mean If working with a partner, all assignments will be submitted jointly (aside from the referee report). So just one person needs to submit.

Rubric

You will be graded on four criteria for each question (8 points per idea, 24 points total):