ECON 5004
Course Project
Description: The primary assessment in this course is a research project that aims to provide
practice and guidance on how to write and present economic information to professional and
academic audiences.
Each student will select into a topic area. The topic area you select will define which peer review
sessions you will attend. Each peer review session will be comprised of students working in the same
area. This is done to facilitate peer-review of each other’s work as well as promote collaboration.
However, the main assessable components of the course project are individual assessments.
The topic groups are:
1. Education and Knowledge
2. Energy and Environment
3. Poverty and Economic Development
4. Monetary Policy
5. Food and Agriculture
6. Health
7. Demographic Change
8. Living Conditions, Community and Wellbeing
Once students have selected a group, the assessment task are
1. Thesis statement and overview DUE 8 Aug
2. The Elevator Pitch – This is a two-minute or less scripted speech that students will give in
tutorials to convey a research project idea.
a. Presented in class 16, 23, and 30 Aug
3. Graphs for tutorial discussion DUE 5 Sep
4. Academic Essay – 1500-word essay on the research topic
a. Draft for peer-review DUE 12 Sep
b. Final draft DUE 8 Oct
5. Academic Presentation – 10-minute live presentation of research project
a. Draft slides DUE 27 Sep
b. Presented in class 18 and 25 of Oct and 1 Nov
Topics, Data, and the Literature: Economist use data. Therefore, you need data to motivate and
argue your thesis statement. Each topic area is going to draw on the same data sources. Again, if we
are all using the same data, then peer-review becomes much easier. Each peer review group gets to
learn about things in the same area of study.
Two primary sources of data for the projects are Our World in Data and the Reserve Bank of
Australia (RBA). Each student will need to use data in some way to motivate or justify the arguments
in your written and presented assessments. The topic areas are chosen to exactly match with topics
and data discussed in Our World in Data with exception of the monetary policy topic, which of
course used the RBA data. The data at these websites is all that is necessary to meet the
requirements of the assessments, but outside sources can also be considered with consultation with
the lecturer and tutors.
Students also need to know something about the economics’ literature in order to write about the
chosen topic. Indeed, students need to know something about the topic areas to even from a thesis
statement. Below I provide links to places to find general overviews of the topics and some
suggested reading. The readings are just examples and are not meant to limit what can be written
about within each topic area. The paper are places to look for ideas and the references cited in these
papers offer links to other interesting and good research to read. Please note that some of these
links can only be reached while on campus or through the university library’s website if not on
campus.
• Energy and Environment
o Our World in Data: https://ourworldindata.org/
o The Economics of the Climate:
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jel.20151335
o An Economist's Guide to Climate Change Science:
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.32.4.3
o What Do Economists Have to Say about the Clean Air Act 50 Years after the
Establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency?:
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.33.4.3
o Does Household Electrification Supercharge Economic Development?:
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.34.1.122
• Poverty and Economic Development
o Our World in Data: https://ourworldindata.org/
o On Measuring Multidimensional Deprivation:
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jel.20161454
o Equality of Opportunity: Theory and Measurement:
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jel.20151206
o On Measuring Multidimensional Deprivation:
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jel.20161454
o Neighborhoods Matter: Assessing the Evidence for Place Effects:
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.35.4.197
o Ending Global Poverty: Why Money Isn't Enough:
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.32.4.173
o Does Household Electrification Supercharge Economic Development?:
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.34.1.122
• Education and Knowledge
o Our World in Data: https://ourworldindata.org/
o College Majors, Occupations, and the Gender Wage Gap:
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.35.4.223
o Staffing the Higher Education Classroom:
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.35.1.143
o Enrollment without Learning: Teacher Effort, Knowledge, and Skill in Primary Schools
in Africa: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.31.4.185
o What Can We Learn from Charter School Lotteries?:
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.30.3.57
o Accountability in US Education: Applying Lessons from K-12 Experience to Higher
Education: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.30.3.33
• Monetary Policy
o Reserve Bank of Australia: https://www.rba.gov.au/statistics/
o Outside the Box: Unconventional Monetary Policy in the Great Recession and
Beyond: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.32.4.121
o The Great Indian Demonetization:
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.34.1.55
• Food and Agriculture
o Our World in Data: https://ourworldindata.org/
o Agricultural Technology in Africa:
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.36.1.33
o Should We Tax Sugar-Sweetened Beverages? An Overview of Theory and Evidence:
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.33.3.202
o Ending Global Poverty: Why Money Isn't Enough:
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.32.4.173
• Health
o Our World in Data: https://ourworldindata.org/
o When Labor's Lost: Health, Family Life, Incarceration, and Education in a Time of
Declining Economic Opportunity for Low-Skilled Men:
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.33.2.191
o Childhood Circumstances and Adult Outcomes: Act II:
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jel.20171164
o Should We Tax Sugar-Sweetened Beverages? An Overview of Theory and Evidence:
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.33.3.202
• Demographic Change
o Our World in Data: https://ourworldindata.org/
o The Puzzle of Falling US Birth Rates since the Great Recession:
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.36.1.151
o Family Economics Writ Large:
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jel.20161287
o Explaining the Decline in the US Employment-to-Population Ratio: A Review of the
Evidence: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jel.20191480
o What Remains of Cross-Country Convergence?:
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jel.20181207
• Living Conditions, Community and Wellbeing
o Our World in Data https://ourworldindata.org/
o Environmental justice: The economics of race, place, and pollution
https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdf/10.1257/jep.33.1.185
o A New Era of Pollution Progress in Urban China?
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.31.1.71
o Income, Health, and Well-Being around the World: Evidence from the Gallup World
Poll
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.22.2.53
KEY DATES AND ASSESSMENTS:
Course Project Key Assessments and Due Dates
Task Description Marks Draft Due Date
Final Due
Date
Thesis statement Thesis statement and overview 6 8-Aug
Elevator Pitch Two-minute or less scripted speech 14
16, 23, 30-
Aug
Graph tutorial
discussion Motivating graph 2
5-Sep
Academic Essay 1500-word essay 26 12-Sep 8-Oct
Academic
Presentation 10-minute live presentation 26 27-Sep
18, 25-Oct,
1-Nov