Effect of marriage on education in the U.S
In order to demonstrate your competency with econometrics and reasoning in the social sciences,
you are required to complete a 5 – 8 page paper. Below I describe data sets that you may use in
your research. If these data sets are of no interest to you, you may use a different data set with
the permission of the instructor.
Once you’ve chosen your data set, you need to specify a well-defined research question that you
will test with the data. Your paper needs to have the following elements to receive full credit:
Important Requirements for your paper:
Your paper must have the following information:
1. One or more graphs of the data showing the relationship that you want to examine with
the data.
2. A table of descriptive statistics for the data used in the analysis.
3. The paper should estimate multiple specifications and present the results in a table.
Ideally, I should be abled to interpret the results in the table without having to read the
text of the paper.
4. Your paper should have at least one hypothesis test related to your research question, and
report test statistics. If it is a time-series paper, Dickey-Fuller tests should be reported.
5. The paper should be double-spaced 12 point font. Pages should be numbered.
6. The conclusion should discuss internal and external validity of results.
7. Include as an appendix, the log file with the regression results and descriptive statistics.
Your paper should OMIT the following:
1. Do not use contractions.
2. Do not cut and paste STATA output as your tables.
Capstone Project for Economics Majors:
Since your Econ 526 paper combines information and skills from multiple economics courses,
you may be able to use your Econ 526 paper to meet the Capstone requirement for the
Economics major. You will need to submit your paper to the University Core Curriculum
Committee (UCCC) for review and approval, as well as Undergraduate Director, Professor Staihr
for review and approval.
Where to Begin:
Find a question that interests you and is tractable. The data sets made available to you can
address many potential questions. Do not attempt to write a Ph.D. thesis in this course. You
2
face two significant hurdles in writing this paper: 1. Finding a question that is narrow enough to
study. 2. Finding data to study your question.
you are required to complete a 5 – 8 page paper. Below I describe data sets that you may use in
your research. If these data sets are of no interest to you, you may use a different data set with
the permission of the instructor.
Once you’ve chosen your data set, you need to specify a well-defined research question that you
will test with the data. Your paper needs to have the following elements to receive full credit:
Important Requirements for your paper:
Your paper must have the following information:
1. One or more graphs of the data showing the relationship that you want to examine with
the data.
2. A table of descriptive statistics for the data used in the analysis.
3. The paper should estimate multiple specifications and present the results in a table.
Ideally, I should be abled to interpret the results in the table without having to read the
text of the paper.
4. Your paper should have at least one hypothesis test related to your research question, and
report test statistics. If it is a time-series paper, Dickey-Fuller tests should be reported.
5. The paper should be double-spaced 12 point font. Pages should be numbered.
6. The conclusion should discuss internal and external validity of results.
7. Include as an appendix, the log file with the regression results and descriptive statistics.
Your paper should OMIT the following:
1. Do not use contractions.
2. Do not cut and paste STATA output as your tables.
Capstone Project for Economics Majors:
Since your Econ 526 paper combines information and skills from multiple economics courses,
you may be able to use your Econ 526 paper to meet the Capstone requirement for the
Economics major. You will need to submit your paper to the University Core Curriculum
Committee (UCCC) for review and approval, as well as Undergraduate Director, Professor Staihr
for review and approval.
Where to Begin:
Find a question that interests you and is tractable. The data sets made available to you can
address many potential questions. Do not attempt to write a Ph.D. thesis in this course. You
2
face two significant hurdles in writing this paper: 1. Finding a question that is narrow enough to
study. 2. Finding data to study your question.
