MODULE 4
TASK:
In the last problem set we want you to get to use the tools you learned in the last few weeks. The idea is for you to present a report styled like an academic paper, not longer than 2 pages (page count not including graphs) that includes:
• An introduction that states your research question and explains why it is relevant and interesting. Conduct a brief literature review related to your research question.
• A paragraph explaining your methodology - how you plan to answer your research question.
• A paragraph presenting your results. Add all the relevant tables and graphs in this section or at the end of the document, however you prefer.
• A paragraph presenting your conclusions, possible policy or economic implications, and what you learned from this exercise.
Make sure to put all code used for this report in a single .do file.
Next, commit your report and the code used for that report on a GitHub repository. This is practice for using Git (of which GitHub is a variant of) for research, which you can read more about here. Please read this guide on how to do so. Ensure that downloading the repository and running the .do file after unzipping will directly let the reader replicate your results (use relative file paths, such as “/data/star.dta” instead of absolute paths like “C:/Users/BFI User/Downloads/star.dta”). This means you need to put your code and the databases in the GitHub repository.
Submit your task with the .do file and the .PDF file ON A GITHUB REPOSITORY.
Make sure to make the repository public, or share the invite https://github.com/charlescshi as a collaborator.
Sample Project: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1niP05oUzJ2UwqnhINGpK0OaTkhlBjqjY/view?usp=sharing
(Note that the project is missing a few parts: specifically, it doesn’t discuss how their research contributes to the literature and does not suggest further routes for research).
Rubric:
(score) Objective
Introduction and literature review:
(1) Citations are formatted correctly
(1) Literature review summarizes paper(s) concisely
(1) Explains what the research is about
(1) Explains relationship between research and the literature
(1) Ties into the economics of the question (doesn't always have to be monetary effects; e.g. behavioral)
Methodology:
(1) Names the methodology (e.g. "an OLS regression")
(1) Clearly describes what is being regressed (or other forms of analysis)
(2) Clearly describes what are the dependent variable and the independent variables (It suffices to show, for example: an equation, to state "X is the regressor", "Y regressed on X", etc.)
(1) Tie methodology to research question(s) and/or justify decisions made in the methodology (e.g. "I control for college education because college-educated people tend to vote differently from non-college-educated people").
Results:
(2) All main results: coefficient, SE or confidence interval, and p-value reported.
(1) Reports significance (e.g. "My results are statistically significant...")
(1) Explains the economics of the results (e.g. "The results show a gender gap in labor force participation")
(1) Tables and figures look nice and are formatted nicely.
Conclusion:
(2) Re-summarizes findings (e.g. "To summarize, we find that hand-washing decreases mortality rates caused by acute infections...")
(2) Consider policy and/or economic implications of findings (e.g. "This shows that hand-washing is a cheap but effective tool to decrease deaths...")
(1) Suggests further research possibilities (e.g. "Research into whether hand-washing with disinfectants vs. soap impact mortality rates may be useful.")
Technical:
(1) GitHub set up correctly
(2) Completely replicable from GitHub repository
(1) Code documentation and commenting
(1) LaTeX done well.
Total: 25 points