Economics Department Senior Thesis Information Session

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Economics DepartmentSenior Thesis
Information Session

• Thesis A position or proposition that a person
  advances and offers to maintain by argument
  (Merriam-Webster dictionary)

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Outline

• What is research
• Six steps in the research process
• Developing an effective research question
• Literature search
• Organization of final paper
• Types of senior theses in economics
• Working with an advisor
• Deadlines
• Critical review of each source

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What is research

• Research creation of knowledge
• How to create knowledge
• Construct an argument
• Argument must be a position or point of view on a
  question
• Argument must be supported by evidence
• Scholars develop competing arguments
• Over time, stronger arguments survive

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Six steps in the research process

• Develop an effective research question
• Survey the literature
• Conceptualize the problem
• Test the hypothesis
• Analyze and interpret the results
• Communicate the findings

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Developing an effective research question

• Three questions must be answered
• What is the research topic
• General area (unemployment, pollution, poverty)
• What is the research question
• One-sentence question
• What is the research hypothesis
• Proposed answer to your question

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Developing an effective research question How
to begin

• Choose a general topic
• Journal of Economic Literature Classification
• http//www.aeaweb.org/journal/jel_class_system.htm
  l
• Start reading the literature
• What has been done
• What questions remain
• Are there contradictions in the literature
• Select a research question from the gaps in the
  literature

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Developing an effective research question - How
to find the gaps in the literature

• Introduction to articles
• Every article will identify the research question
  and how it differs from other research in the
  introduction
• Conclusion of articles
• Every article should list its weaknesses and
  areas for further study in the conclusion

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Literature search in economics

• http//libraryweb.washcoll.edu
• Instruction Course guide Ecn 410-10
• Econlit (750 journals)
• Limit by subject headings after getting a list of
  articles
• PAIS (3,600 sources on public policy)
• Social Science Citation Index (1,700 social
  science journals search forward)

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Organization of your final paper

• Four sections in all empirical papers in
  economics
• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Empirical Analysis
• Conclusions

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Organization of your final paper

• Introduction
• Define general topic
• What research has been done on this already
• What are gaps in literature
• Define your specific research question
• How will you answer your question (method)
• Order of remaining paper

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Organization of your final paper

• Literature review and hypothesis
• What does previous research say about topic
• Each paragraph represents one study
• Each paragraph represents one theme
• Summarize gaps in literature
• What is your own hypothesis

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Organization of your final paper

• Empirical Analysis
• Descriptive statistics
• Regression analysis
• Before and after
• Case studies
• Forecasting

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Organization of your final paper

• Conclusions
• Restate the hypothesis or research question
• Summarize your results
• Did you confirm your hypothesis
• Weaknesses of your study
• Areas for further study
• No new citations, tables, or footnotes

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Types of theses in economics

• Propose a new theory
• Evaluate an existing theory with data
• Evaluate existing literature
• Evaluate current or future policies
• Using theory to explain historical situation
• Evaluate historical policies and their
  consequences in the past
• Predict a future situation based on historical
  trends

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Recent senior thesis titles in economics

• An evaluation of the effectiveness of the Grameen
  Bank in Bangladesh
• The 2001 Bush Tax Cut Lessons from Reagan and
  Prospects for the Future
• An Economic Analysis of United States Drug
  Control Policy
• Analysis of Wage Discrimination in Major League
  Baseball.
• Argentina, Brazil and the Mercosur Agreement The
  Importance and Difficulties of Mercosur for
  Argentina and Brazil
• The Costs and Benefits of the Clean Water Acts
• Dollarization in Ecuador The Crisis and the
  Aftermath

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Working with an advisor

• Dr. Bailey
• Economic History, Urban and Regional Planning,
  Money and Banking, Macroeconomics
• Dr. Daniels
• Economic Development, Poverty, Industrial
  Organization
• Dr. Dawson
• Natural Resource Management, Environmental
  Economics, Industrial Organization, Game Theory
• Dr. Lynch
• International Economics, Comparative Economic
  systems, Public Finance, Economic Development,
  Income Distribution
• Dr. Rajaram
• Labor Economics, Public Finance, Demography

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Deadlines
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Critical review of each source

• What question is the author asking?
• What answer does the author propose?
• In what ways does the current study improve over
  previous research?
• How does the proposed answer differ from that
  provided by previous research?
• What empirical evidence does the author provide
  or what method does s/he use?