ECON 395 Fall 2021 Term Paper Guidelines
Term paper is due DECEMBER 1st Wednesday by 11pm !!!
Submit under blackboard assignments tab, just like we do for quizzes or the midterm.
I expect you to write your term paper on any social, political, religious, political, scientific, organizational, anthropological, linguistic, historical issue you are interested in that has an economic side that is relevant in its public discussion (you can also choose your own topic not on this list, but confirm with me beforehand). Here are some suggestions:
Gender pay gap Crime and Incarceration in the US Sharing economy Big Data, Data Privacy and Economics
Opioid Crisis and Economics US Healthcare Reform Political campaign Financing US Poverty and Homelessness
You might also be interested in topics studying non-US actors and events; say Chinese growth, or Europes Immigration issue. I want the term paper to be composed of 3 parts:
1) Subject description and Introduction: I want you to define the topic you are writing on, its scope and boundaries in one or two pages. For example, if you are writing on US Healthcare reform, you might want to confine interest in the last 10-20 years and focus on the issues and discussions around the Affordable Care Act. Make sure the first 1-2 paragraphs clearly define what is the core topic youre researching on.
2) Literature review: I expect you to do a google research, and check library holdings that are very closely related to your topic. I expect you go over 15-20 references in total to recent publications like research papers, journal or newspaper articles, books, youtube videos,..etc. surely I dont expect you to read multiple books fully; but you should have a sense of what is going on and know the basic ideas of the resources you are citing. This part should take around 5-7 pages.
3) Original Contributions, Comments and Critique: This is supposed to be the original part, that comes directly from you, after all you have read and thought. You can comment on the claims and arguments in the resources you have cited, come up with your own opinions and analysis and also raise issues or further questions yourself. There is no page limit on this part, but I expect at least 2-3 pages of original commentary and analysis. This is supposed to be an economic analysis, hence try to bring to mind all concepts, tools, methods you have learned in all economics classes you have taken thus far. The issue surely has social , political, historical angles to it naturally, and you may include such approaches, but you are supposed to look at the issue mainly from an economic angle, with concepts like costs, benefits, parties of interest, demand and supply, market power, externalities, welfare, elasticity etc.
I expect you to submit a single paragraph by OCTOBER 1st 11pm, explaining your main topic and question, and commit to that idea and develop it into a term paper. Then youll submit the full term paper again as a second attempt at the term paper by December 1st.
I will use Turnitin feature on blackboard to check for incorrect citations or any plagiarism. If we normalize the total grade for the paper to be 100; roughly 40 points are accrued on the original comment/contribution, and roughly 40 points on the quality, relevance, and depth of the literature review, and 20 points on timely submission, organization and clarity of thought and exposition. I will be more lenient on the original contributions part, as I dont expect you to come up with a full-fledged model or analysis, but the deeper you can go, the better it is. I expect you to invest a minimum of 20 hours of your time on this project from start to finish. Let me know if you have any questions about it. Good luck!
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