Economics Question

The purpose of this research project is to allow you to explore an area of interest in the field of economics of race and gender. You have substantial freedom about topic choice and format, but I will give some suggestions below You write a 1200 – 1500 word research paper. I will give more guidance on the format at the end of this document.

Timeline (deadlines):

1. Topic Selection (April 17 deadline, earlier is better): Submit a ½ page to 1-page typed description of your paper topic. This should include your research question, some motivation for why you want to look at this question, and a brief description of your approach. You should cite at least two sources besides the textbook that you have found to use in your paper. If doing a quantitative paper, you should identify what dataset you plan to use for your paper. These are important steps to check the feasibility of your project (I may ask you to revise the topic or to clarify your plan before accepting a topic.
2. Project : Submit a final copy of your paper online via CANVAS. Please don’t be late! If you submit your paper late it may affect my ability to give you a grade by the university deadline.

You have two options for topic choice:

Option #1: Do a literature review paper about a specific topic related to gender and/or race differences in the economy. This paper must investigate the issue deeply and go far beyond our class discussion.

You may write in response to readings, lectures, class discussions, current events, or any other ideas you might have. Most students will choose to do the literature review option. If you choose this option, you need a clear research question and you will rely on published research to help answer this question. In a literature review you organize, evaluate, identify patterns, and synthesize the literature. Your job is to prioritize what to include and what not to include. You must organize the literature by big ideas and evaluate the research that you are reading. For the literature review option, you need to cite 6+ high quality sources and at least 3 should be from academic journals. Two important points:

• A LITERATURE REVIEW IS NOT AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY! Your paper should be organized by ideas and not one resource at a time.
• Even though you are using published research, follow the normal rules of citations to avoid plagiarizing. In general, you will want to summarize and cite rather than filling your paper with quotations. Read the handout and see me if you have any questions.

You have broad choice about your specific topic. Take this assignment as a chance to explore something that you find interesting. Some ideas that might help you in deciding:

• Pick a subtopic that we only touched on briefly and develop it much more fully.
  • For example, the textbook just barely touches on the effect that gender identity and sexual preference have on labor market experiences. You could take this topic and develop it much further.
  • Look more deeply at the effect of mass incarceration on labor force participation and/or family formations
• Take a basic topic that we looked at in-depth but explore a different group or country. For example you could look at the determinants of female labor force participation in another country (such as Mexico or France), gender and human capital development in another country (such as Ethiopia) or examine the wage gap for a specific group that we did not consider in class (racial minorities in Germany, for example).
• Develop a topic that is related to the course, but we did not cover at all:
  • Discrimination in another specific areas besides the labor market: consumer market, financial markets, housing market, education, or law enforcement. (pick one or two)
  • In depth analysis of skin-color and discrimination
  • Economics of marriage and family formation in other marriage systems: for example, polygamy, or marriage systems that use dowry or bride price.
  • Rising opioid abuse and labor force participation or family formation

These are just a few examples. Feel free to explore and choose something that you find interesting.In your paper/presentation make use of economics vocabulary and economics tools from this course. Your paper will be graded mostly on the relevance of your topic, the depth of your analysis, the accurate use of ideas and vocabulary from the course, and logical structure and organization.

Option #2: Use a data set and econometric methods to write a quantitative paper. This would be a good choice if you have some existing data skills and are interested in improving your skills by engaging in a practical project. If you choose this route, please let me know early in case you need assistance.

Some possibilities for this project are:

• Use the regression methods outlined in week 14 to do a labor market study about racial or gender discrimination. To do this need individual data that includes earnings, education, age, sex, race (if relevant), and other variables for individual workers. Data is available for the US from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This type of data is available for many other countries as well.
• Get data about the occupational distribution and calculate the Duncan Index then analyze how it has changed over time.
• Use Duncan index to measure segregation in another area such as housing or education

Below I give more specifics about the format:

Research Paper

• Minimum 1000 - 1500 word = approx. four to six pages double spaced 12 point font with 1” borders (no penalty for longer papers, I reduced the page length compared to previous semesters)
• Tables, charts, data, images, and citations are not part of the word count.
• You need 6+ resources, at least three of which should be research published in academic journals. See the end of this document for guidance about how to find sources.
• You can use any of the standard citation methods that you want (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.) . I don’t have a preference about the method you use as long as you are consistent.
• Grade will be primarily about the content of your paper, organization, depth of analysis and the degree to which you utilize learning from this course in your paper.

• Links to an external site. You can then export your narration as a video to be submitted on Canvas. I have used this quite a bit and can assist you if you run into trouble
• The following link explains how to record a narration for Prezi: https://prezi.com/4xjeopbswa_a/how-to-add-voice-over-to-your-prezi/Links to an external site.

Where to go for more resources and information:

1. The textbook: Contains most of the relevant economic models for looking at gender issues. Also at the end of each chapter, there are number citations of papers and books that relate the topics discussed in the textbook. In addition, there are articles that are suggested for further reading.
2. News sources: Articles from newspapers and magazines are good for introducing your topic and explaining the importance of the issues involved. Some suggestions: Economist, Wall Street Journal, any major newspaper…. Reading news articles can also help you to choose a topic because you will be more aware of current events. (you can usually access current articles directly from the publisher’s websites but for older articles you will probably have to go through the UCD library website)
3. Academic journals: There are many good ones. Some that often talk about gender/race issues are: Journal of Economic Perspectives, Journal of Human Resources, Review of Economics and Statistics. There are many others but these ones tend to be more accessible to undergraduates without advanced training in statistics and mathematics.
4. World Development report on Gender: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/4391Links to an external site.
5. Data: Bureau of Labor Statistics https://www.bls.gov/Links to an external site. and FRED https://fred.stlouisfed.org/Links to an external site. are a good start.