BEEQ2023 Basic Econometrics

D Group
Semester A181
Project Paper – Instructions

Weight: 20% of overall marks

Proposal due: 11 October 2018 (in class)
Project due: 13 December 2018 (in class)

Proposal: TOC
 Title (register & get approval)
 Problem statement
 Theoretical framework
 Objectives
 Data & variable operationalization Y & Xs
 Sampling design
 Questionnaire

Paper: General
1) Should be written in the form of a journal article, NOT in the form of a usual assignment
report.
2) Paper is to be written in English; should be proofread before submission.
3) The project paper is to be submitted in ALL the following 3 forms:
a) hardcopy, to be submitted in class
b) softcopy in Microsoft Word, saved in a CD, and CD to be submitted in class as
well; you should also include in the CD the softcopy of the journal articles
referred to.
c) softcopy submitted through UUM Online Learning
4) Plagiarism – suspected plagiarism will be checked in Turnitin; plagiarized paper will be
given 0%.
5) Referencing in text:
 Soon (2010) suggested that….
 Theodore and Knowles (2009) found that….
 According to Soon et al. (2012), it is….
 Most students intend to remain abroad to gain work experience (Kent & Carlly 2011).
 Most students intend to remain abroad to gain work experience (Batista et al. 2008).

Paper: Formatting
1) Paper length: 3,000 to 3,500 words (everything inclusive, except appendices)
2) Single spacing, font 12, Times New Roman
3) All margins at 2cm
4) All pages should be numbered except the first page.
5) Use font 10 for Tables and Figures.
6) Title page: contains title, your name & matric no., abstract, keywords
7) Text should be justified both sides.
8) Table and Figures should be placed along with the relevant text, and not at the end of the
paper.
9) Tables should only consist of 3 horizontal lines.
Paper: TOC
1) Abstract (max 150 words) – problem statement, primary objective, methodology used,
main findings/conclusion, contribution of study

2) Keywords – include a maximum of 5 keywords

3) Introduction – overview/background of study, problem statement, objectives of study,

scope of study, paper organisation

4) Literature review – a synthesis of what have been done in your topic area; do not document
the past studies chronologically or by author; each paragraph should represent a point or an
idea, use past studies as support; fill gap in the literature; funnel down to your own
contribution; do not plagiarize; write what you understand in your own words or paraphrase;
give author-year citation of the source

5) Theoretical framework – the theories you use, how the theories relate to your studies; put in
diagram form

6) Data – Y and Xs along with their operationalization/measurement, the categories of Xs you

use, sampling design used to collect your primary data, target population & respondents, data
cleaning/checking, final usable sample size (N), construct a questionnaire

7) Descriptive statistics – summary of your data; put in table/graph form and elaborate; mean,
standard deviations, cross-tabulations, total, percentage, correlation matrix

8) Model specification – your econometric model; explain your expected signs of the Xs
coefficients i.e. the hypotheses

9) Results & Findings – report & interpret your output, statistical significance of the Xs
coefficients (p-values or the rule-of-thumb t-statistic), whether or not support your
hypotheses, reformat estimation output table (3 horizontal lines), do not just copy and paste
the SPSS output table into your final paper; explain F-statistic, adjusted R-squared; check for
M~ and H~

10) Conclusions & Policy Implications – main conclusion of your study; any implications on
relevant policies (do not claim moon & stars); limitation of study; recommendations for future
research

11) References – follow the APA format; every article/book you referred to in your text
should be listed in this section; references from journal articles and academic/text books; you
may only refer to newspapers if your problem statement is ignited from the news; non-
academic magazines are not encouraged

12) Appendices – the questionnaire, SPSS raw dataset, SPSS output tables, CD (include the
journal articles you referred to in the CD).