The econometrics project will be an opportunity to apply the concepts learned in class to write an empirical paper on a topic
of choice. Students will need to select a topic, formulate a research question, and apply the analytical and quantitative skills
acquired in this course to a data set to answer the question. Before finalizing a topic, please make sure that the appropriate
data exists.
Your research paper should attempt to make a contribution to the existing literature, such as:
Add a new variable that hasn’t been studied before to an existing model
Study an existing question with more recent data
Use a new data set for an existing paper to study a question for a different geography other than the original
Find a completely new question (hard but possible)
In addition to the empirical analysis, students will have to write a paper on the subject, with the following sections:
introduction, literature review, data, methodology, results and analysis, and conclusion.
Identifying the topic and the research question is challenging, but finding data to test your hypothesis is a critical success
factor for the project. You can obtain data from any sources, but I recommend you familiarize yourself with IPUMS and the
available datasets that exist there. Once you identified the topic and the research question, it is important you identify whether
you can get the data for it. If you cannot find the dataset, you need to identify a new topic and research question.
