Econ 401: Public Finance General Instructions for “Research Paper” Assignment

Econ 401: Public Finance

General Instructions for “Research Paper” Assignment

Below are a few notes to help you while completing your projects. As always, if you have

questions, particularly those concerning economic content, :

(1) You have very wide latitude in determining your topic. It can literally be almost anything

that you believe relates to the topics discussed in class (please do not email to ask if a

project is OK – if it is any way economic and it interests you, then it is). Ideally, you will

be able to identify a topic that you are generally interested in and that you would like to

learn a little more about. While I may not have felt this way when I was on the other side

of the equation, as an instructor, my over-riding theory on class assignments is that if you

have to do them, you might as well try to learn something valuable from them. This could

be as simple as a nice piece of trivia that you can trot out as some point in future discussions

or as important as a piece of information that spurs you to personal action.

(2) If you are struggling to find a topic, I suggest quickly skimming today’s headlines on major

new sites such as cnn.com, foxnews.com, etc. or any other news websites that you might

be able to access. For instance, on cnn.com right now, there are articles titled:

Bernie Sanders: It’s time for a 32-hour work week with no loss in pay

Four years after rivalry, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders partner to push for lower prescription drug costs

State lawyer: ‘Maybe Texas went too far’ with controversial law

and so on; and so on; and so on.

All of these are excellent potential topics, as they are timely, can easily be related to course

material, and should be of interest to many of you as citizens of the United States that will

be affected by whatever policies are ultimately enacted to deal with these situations.

(3) The assignment will be graded based on your positive analysis, not your normative

analysis. I could not care less about your own personal feelings about a topic, as your

personal beliefs are yours alone, just as mine are mine alone. Rather, I will be looking only

at the manner in which you conduct your positive analysis.

(4) As this is an applied microeconomics course, I really should be seeing applied

microeconomic analysis. And what is our favorite tool when performing such analysis?

The supply-demand framework. Accordingly, while not required, I strongly suggest that

you think in these terms when conducting your analysis.

(5) This is not an English class and hence there are no specific rules as to the formatting of the

paper (i.e. you do not have to follow the Chicago Manual of Style or anything like that).

However, if you quote directly from a source, it is proper to provide a correct citation.

(6) Please remember that while the technology world has developed lots of tools to “assist” you in the paper writing process, it has also developed tools to “assist” me in identifying if you choose to use such technology.

(7) To receive full credit, please upload to the Turnitin folder on Canvas before the due date.

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