In order to get honors conversion credit for this course, students who are in
the college honors program will need to submit three assignments, the
last being a short term
paper for the course and the first two being preliminary assignments
leading up to the term paper. The paper should address a question of
your choice in macroeconomics, one that you can answer with a combination
of simple macroeconomic theory (which you can draw from the text) and
economic data. The question can be one that you make up yourself, with
my approval, or it can be adapted from the list below. It is not
expected that you will do any reading of economic literature beyond the
regular reading assignments for the course. However, you will need to
search out data to answer your question, on the web or in other
sources.
Suggested paper topics
- Have macroeconomic recessions in the United States since World
War II been caused primarily by changes in [pick one] i) monetary
policies, ii) taxes, iii) government spending, or iv) desires to consume,
save, or invest?
- Pick any two countries of the world whose economies have grown at
significantly different rates during the last half of the 20th
century. Then discuss what seem to be the principal causes of this
difference in growth performance.
- How has the natural rate of unemployment changed in the United States
during the last five decades, and what changes in the economy can you
identify that may have caused these changes?
- When aggregate unemployment rises and falls during the business
cycle, what groups within the labor force gain and lose the most and the
least in terms of their own specific unemployment? Are there any parts
of the labor force that seem to be at all
insulated from the ups and downs of the national labor market?
- Which seems to be more important for explaining [pick one:
investment, savings, velocity of money], the real interest rate or the
nominal interest rate?
- How, if at all, is the direction of a country's balance of trade --
surplus or deficit -- related to whether it is prosperous or poor? That
is, looking either across countries or in a single country over time, do
situations of trade surplus tend to correspond to high employment and
prosperity, to low employment and poverty, or are they
unrelated?
Your assignment
- Pick a paper topic, either one that you design yourself or one
from the above list, making it more specific where necessary. If you
design your own, you should send me an e-mail describing it for my
suggestions and approval.
- Write a one-paragraph proposal (1/2 to 1 page, no more) that
describes the question your paper will address and how you propose to
answer it. This should include mention (but without details) of the
macroeconomic concepts, theories, and/or models that you will draw upon
to explain the problem (from the textbook, most likely), plus reference
to the source or sources of data that you expect to use.
- Next you should write a first draft of your paper. The
text of your paper should be no more than five pages double spaced, not
including any tables and graphs. (If you can't keep it that short,
narrow your topic.)
- After you get the draft back from me with my comments, produce the
final version of the paper responding to those comments as needed.
Unless I tell you otherwise in my comments, the final version should also
satisfy the five-page limit.
Schedule
These parts of the assignment should be turned in, at the latest, by
the beginning of class on the dates below. (If you turn something in
before these dates, I will try to return it to you earlier.)
Tuesday, January 30:
| E-mail topic for approval, if not from the above list
|
Tuesday, February 13:
| Proposal due
|
Tuesday, March 27:
| First draft due (comments returned by Apr 3)
|
Tuesday, April 17:
| Final version due
|
Evaluation
The work will not be graded, but will only be classified as satisfactory or unsatisfactory for honors credit. It will not affect your grade for the course. The evaluation will be based on both the quality of the economic analysis
and the quality of the writing, in the final version only, and on the
extent to which you have followed the instructions and met the deadlines
specified.
Paper Format
The paper should conform to the following format:
- Papers should be printed on one side only of standard, white, 8.5 by
11 paper. Text should be in a legible 11- or 12-point font, double
spaced, with 1- to 1.5-inch margins. Be sure that paragraphs are clearly
separated, either by indenting the first line or by extra spacing.
- A title page should include (only) the title of the paper; author's name, e-mail address, and student number; and the course, section number, and date. Title page does not count as part of the five-page limit.
- Data should be presented in tables and/or graphs, on separate pages
following the text, with the sources of the data clearly identified. Be
sure to report enough about the data so that it can be understood,
including the date(s) and place(s) to which
it refers and units of measurement.
- If you use textual sources other than the course textbook (you
needn't), you should list them in a bibliography on a separate page (not
counted among the five). References to the textbook can be done within
your paper's text, by author and page or chapter as needed. (E.g.,
"... following Mankiw's (p. 339) formulation of the quantity
equation...".)
Data sources may be identified on the pages of tables or
graphs only, including the web address (URL) for anything from the
web.
- All text pages must be numbered. Numbering of pages with tables
and graphs is desirable, but optional.
- Do not use covers or binders on the paper. Attach the pages
only by a staple in the upper left-hand corner.