Intermediate Public Economics Research Paper Assignment

Step 1. Identify a question in public economics that is of interest to you. For instance, do
minimum wages cause unemployment? What is the optimal health insurance regime? Do
people work more in response to lower marginal tax rates?
Step 2. Propose your paper topic to me along with a list of scholarly articles you plan to read,
summarize, evaluate, and synthesize. Choose peer-reviewed journals as sources for your articles.
Try the Journal of Economics Perspectives as a start since this journal frequently publishes less
technical papers.
Your proposal must have either 5 scholarly articles or 3 scholarly articles AND 3 newspaper
articles (from major papers like the WSJ, NYT, etc). If you take the newspaper route, you
should critique the economic arguments in the newspaper articles in addition to summarizing,
evaluating, and synthesizing the scholarly articles. For instance, given your understanding of the
scholarly consensus, how well does the newspaper article do in reporting on a given topic?
You need to list the scholarly articles in your proposal so I can make sure they are okay. Give
the official citation (e.g. NOT a website) as you would in a bibliography so I know the author
and publication. If you are doing anything besides the default assignment, you need to
describe it in this proposal. DUE 2/2
Step 3. Write a draft of your research paper. Be sure to focus on understanding the
identification strategies employed in your scholarly articles so you can summarize their findings.
Then you can evaluate their arguments and synthesize the scholarly findings from the literature
youve selected. If you have selected the newspaper option, consider perhaps critiquing the
contemporary media coverage at the end of your research paper once you have demonstrated a
command of the economics literature. DUE 3/16
Step 4. You will exchange your paper with a randomly selected student who will give you
feedback about the quality of your argument and writing. Prepare a one page summary of your
critique and provide a copy to both the author of the paper and me. Feel free to mark a copy of
the paper as you read it and return that to the author as well. DUE 3/30
Step 5. Incorporate feedback into your revision and prepare a final draft. You should aim for 5
to 10 pages, although I care far more about the quality of your writing than the quantity (there
have been two-page A papers in this class in the past). DUE 4/6
Step 6. Prepare a concise and interesting 5 minute talk to give to the class on your project. No
slides, no props except a piece of chalk. If you are doing a project where you could benefit from
a longer talk or slides, please come talk to me and I will try to accommodate you. (last four
lectures in class plan on attending all presentations).