Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
This material was developed as part of the Carleton Teaching Activity Collection and is replicated on
a number of sites as part of the SERC Pedagogic Service Project
Summary
Learning Goals
This assignment is designed for a field course taught after introductory economics, but before the
intermediate theory sequence. The assignment presented here is designed for industrial
organization, but I have taught the same assignment in Labor economics and it could easily be recast
for other courses.
I have used it in classes of 25 students, though it could easily work in larger classes.
I hand out the attached assignment at the beginning of a 10-week term. In the first two weeks, we
meet with a reference librarian to talk about finding articles in the primary literature and common
datasets. In the third week, I ask students to see me to discuss their topic to ensure they are heading
in a reasonable direction. The assignment is due on the last day of the term.
Materials:
Examples of the material discussed with the reference librarian can be found here:
Students have a hard time generating questions that have connections to theory. For instance, they
may propose "price discrimination" as their research "question." They need help coming up with an
hypothesis that could be accepted or rejected. Ultimately, I sometimes give students a question
related to the area of their interest. The degree of hand-holding can be reflecting in grading under
"creativity of the proposed question."
Based on past paper-writing experience, students often think they can whip together a 5-page paper
in a day or two. By requiring that they hand in draft work early on in the term, you can avoid the
inevitable mess that results when students realize that it takes a good bit of time to generate a
research topic and identify relevant data sources.
The genre of a research proposal is novel to most students. It takes many iterations to convince
them that I really don't want them to actually do any analysis—just clearly plan and lay out the work.
Students tend to think of the primary literature as a canon rather than as a discussion between
colleagues. A few minutes discussing this when the assignment is given out can help situate
students' thinking.
Note that the assignment limits the extent of the literature review to 5 primary literature papers.
This is important to making the assignment feasible. While the literature is invariably much larger
and no senior should start their thesis without a comprehensive understanding of what has come
before, 5 papers is sufficient to give students a feel for how to place their work in the context of
prior understanding.
Assessment
Ultimately, I grade holistically. But to help me provide students with feedback and to guide my
grading, I give "plus, check, minus" scores to each of eight categories:
The economics
How well does the student motivate the topic? (I encourage them to use a few well-chosen numbers
to place the proposed topic in context or to frame the importance of the question. This use of
quantitative reasoning may not always be relevant, however.)
How well does the student situate the proposal in the context of existing work?
Does the proposed question connect clearly from theory? Is it really true that theory speaks to the
proposed analysis?
Will the identified data allow the student to answer the proposed question? Is the sample size
reasonably large? Is the dataset truly accessible?
The writing
Is the paper well organized? Does it include clear transition sentences? Did I ever get "lost"?