Overview
Econ 401: Public Finance General Instructions for “Research Paper” Assignment
Below are a few notes to help you while completing your projects. As always, if you have questions, particularly those concerning economic content, :
(1) You have very wide latitude in determining your topic. It can literally be almost anything that you believe relates to the topics discussed in class (please do not email to ask if a project is OK – if it is any way economic and it interests you, then it is). Ideally, you will be able to identify a topic that you are generally interested in and that you would like to learn a little more about. While I may not have felt this way when I was on the other side of the equation, as an instructor, my over-riding theory on class assignments is that if you have to do them, you might as well try to learn something valuable from them. This could be as simple as a nice piece of trivia that you can trot out as some point in future discussions or as important as a piece of information that spurs you to personal action.
(2) If you are struggling to find a topic, I suggest quickly skimming today’s headlines on major new sites such as cnn.com, foxnews.com, etc. or any other news websites that you might be able to access. For instance, on cnn.com right now, there are articles titled:
Bernie Sanders: It’s time for a 32-hour work week with no loss in pay Four years after rivalry, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders partner to push for lower prescription drug costs State lawyer: ‘Maybe Texas went too far’ with controversial law
and so on; and so on; and so on.
All of these are excellent potential topics, as they are timely, can easily be related to course material, and should be of interest to many of you as citizens of the United States that will be affected by whatever policies are ultimately enacted to deal with these situations.
(3) The assignment will be graded based on your positive analysis, not your normative analysis. I could not care less about your own personal feelings about a topic, as your personal beliefs are yours alone, just as mine are mine alone. Rather, I will be looking only at the manner in which you conduct your positive analysis.
(4) As this is an applied microeconomics course, I really should be seeing applied microeconomic analysis. And what is our favorite tool when performing such analysis? The supply-demand framework. Accordingly, while not required, I strongly suggest that you think in these terms when conducting your analysis.
(5) This is not an English class and hence there are no specific rules as to the formatting of the paper (i.e. you do not have to follow the Chicago Manual of Style or anything like that). However, if you quote directly from a source, it is proper to provide a correct citation.
(6) Please remember that while the technology world has developed lots of tools to “assist” you in the paper writing process, it has also developed tools to “assist” me in identifying if you choose to use such technology.