Instructor: Yu-chin Chen
Time/Location: T 3:30-5:20pm/ SAV 136
Office Hours: Sign
up for a time slot here or by appointment
*10/14: HW1 due by 5pm on Friday Oct 23rd (please email them to me); in class presentations on Oct 27th.
* Two postings: 1) Tips for Thesis Writing; 2) Suggested Citation Guide
* 10/8: OFFICE HOURS SIGN UP SHEET (I am trying this new method; let me know if it's not working as intended; you should aim to sign up for a slot, on either Tuesdays or Thursday in the next couple of weeks)
* Useful Handouts (for registered students only; you will need to login via your NetID)
* Please sign up for Office Hours here.
* Samples theses (for registered students only; you will need to login via your NetID)
* Links:
- Some Conventions of an Economics Paper (Duke)
- Guide to Writing Economics (Duke)
- Economics
Writing Guide (Bates)
Honors and other students in high standing have the opportunity to develop research techniques, to pursue topics in breadth and depth, and to apply tools of economic analysis to selected topics in economic theory and current issues of national and international economic policy. For seniors only.
This course will provide a forum for undergraduate honors students to pursue independent thesis research. Lectures and discussions will aim to help students understand the research process better as well as develop the necessary techniques for writing good economics papers. There will be several deadlines throughout the quarter to ensure that good progress is being made, and students will receive critical/constructive feedback on their ideas and work, both from the instructor and from fellow students. By the end of the course, students will put together a substantive research proposal of 15 to 18 pages, which they will continue to develop in Econ 497 with an individual advisor.
The class meetings are from 3:30 to 5:20pm on Tuesdays. Although full-class meetings may not be held every week, students should not schedule other activities during this period. This is because students may be required to have individual or small group office hours with the instructor to discuss progress, or because the class may be broken into small groups for discussion and presentations. Class participation (presenting your own work thoughtfully and accessibly, while commenting appropriately on other students work) will be a non-trivial portion of the final grade. Each student should be able to discuss the projects of other students in the class (or smaller group) thoughtfully by the end of the quarter.
Acceptable theses are those which are original, involve “creating” knowledge using primary sources, and aim to make a worthwhile contribution to a relevant economic question. Sometimes this contribution comes from an interesting empirical or theoretical result, but other times contributions can arise from showing how an apparently promising avenue of research may not prove fruitful. The thesis does NOT have to involve data or regressions; it can be a purely theoretical exposition, and sometimes it can be entirely literary with no data or equations. However, remember that one of the most crucial elements in research is to demonstrate why your conclusion is sound, and it is often easier to do so with empirical or theoretical support for your arguments.
To quote Prof. Ben Friedman of Harvard University, "the goal [of a senior thesis] is to achieve some level of originality: if not to suggest a whole new idea, then to bring some new perspective to bear on a familiar question, or to expose it to new empirical data - in short, to reach some conclusion (even if that conclusion is that the data do not warrant a clear answer to the question posed) that you could not have simply looked up by finding the right article in the American Economic Review."
| Date | Topics | Notes | Assignments ** |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 6 | Introduction: Finding a Topic | HW1a | |
| Oct 13 | Overview of Research Strategy + individual meetings | HW1b | |
| Oct 20 | |||
| Oct 27 | In class student presentation | ||
| Nov 3 | |||
| Nov 10 | |||
| Nov 17 | |||
| Nov 24 | |||
| Dec 1 | Final Presentations and Discussions | ||
| Dec 8 | Final Presentations and Discussions |
** The purpose of all assignments is to help advance the writing of your thesis, not to create extra work. If your research progresses on schedule, you should have no problem preparing these assignments as a by-product of work already completed. If you feel one of these assignments is particularly far from your research trajectory, please talk to me. (But given the broad nature of these assignments, exemptions will be granted only in well-justified cases.)
IV. What Constitutes a Draft/Research Proposal?