ECOM30002/90002 Econometrics 2, Semester 2, 2025
Capstone Project Assignment 3 (Final Report)
1 Overview
The final Capstone Project Assignment is a full empirical research report in which you
present the research question you investigated, the data and methods you used to an-
swer the research question, and you discuss the main results as well as extensions and
robustness checks.
• Capstone project group:
– Groups are the same as those from the first two assignments.
• This assignment (Assignment 3 – Final Report) counts 25% towards the final mark
and is composed of:
1. Group presentation (7%)
Takes place in person during the Week 11 tutorials (13–17 October).
Slides have to be submitted through the LMS assignment portal by Sunday,
12 October, 11:59 p.m. Details in Section 2.1 below.
2. Final report (18%)
Submission of the report must be through the LMS assignment portal and is
due Friday, 24 October, 11:59 p.m. Late submissions will not be accepted.
Details in Section 2.2 and 2.3 below.
• Marks:
– Each group member will receive equal marks for the final report.
– For the group presentation, every group member is expected to present. All
presenting group members will receive equal marks. Group members who are
absent during the presentation will receive zero marks.
– Marking of the final report will consider both the difficulty targeted as well as
the quality of the execution. Marking of the group presentation will consider
both the written slides and the oral presentation.
1
2 Assignment tasks
2.1 Group presentation of the research project
The group presentation serves the purpose of disseminating your research results to your
fellow students, practicing and developing research communication skils, as well as ob-
taining feedback that you can incorporate into your final capstone research report. The
group presentation (worth 7%) will be marked based on the presentation slides (3%),
the oral presentation (3%), and feedback towards (and response to feedback from) other
groups (1%).
Slides
• The slides help you present your research to your audience. They should provide a
clear, concise and informative summary of your project.
• The number of slides should not exceed 8 slides, of which one should be the title
slide.
• The slides should follow a logical structure that is appropriate to your particular
research project. Here is an example:
– Project title and group member names: 1 slide
– Introduction and motivation of the research question: 1 slide
– Econometric model and methods: 1 slide
– Data (variables used/descriptive statistics): 1 slide
– Main estimation results: 1 slide
– Extensions and robustness checks: 1-2 slides
– Conclusions: 1 slide
• The presentation slides have to be submitted as a single pdf file via Canvas by
Sunday, 12 October, 11:59 p.m. Groups that do not submit the slides as indicated
and on time will not be allowed to present and will receive zero marks.
• The version of the slides submitted to Canvas is the version that you will present.
Later alterations are not allowed.
• On the day of the presentation, the tutor will have your slides loaded and the list
of topics on the computer.
2
Presentation
• The group presentations take place in Week 11 in the tutorial where the group
members are enrolled.
• The maximum time allocated is 5 minutes for a group of 1 student, 6 minutes for a
group of 2 students, and 7 minutes for a group of 3 students. Every group member
must present, and speaking time should be shared fairly among all members.
• Each group must have at least one constructive and brief comment towards another
group’s presentation. Each group also need to response to feedback from the other
group. The tutor will moderate the comment session.
• The oral presentation will be marked on the quality and clarity of communication,
time management, and the quality of the feedback.
• Students are strongly encouraged to practice their presentation to ensure a timely
delivery that focusses on the key points they want to present in each slide.
2.2 Final report
The Capstone project final report is to be submitted in the format of an Economics
research report. The final report should build on your progress report. It should incor-
porate the analyses, robustness checks and extensions suggested in the progress report,
as well as feedback received in the course of the group oral assessment and the group
presentation. It should present a coherent piece of empirical research aimed at answering
the question you posed in your project proposal.
Key elements of a successful final report
A successful final report...
• Introduces and motivates the research question (rationale for the research question)
and the proposed causal relationship of interest with economic ideas/arguments.
• Provides relevant descriptive statistics. Discusses and interprets statistics that are
of particular relevance to the research question.
• Clearly states the main regression model(s) and the link to the research question
and, potentially, the causal relationship of interest. Describes the variables with a
focus on the outcome variable and key explanatory variable. Discusses why these
variables were chosen.
3
• Presents regression results clearly and interprets results in relation to the research
question. Considers carefully whether to provide a statistical or causal interpreta-
tion.
• Discusses the finite sample and the asymptotic properties of the key result.
• Shows a good understanding of the methods by discussing potential limitations of
the results.
• You must show at least two (and no more than four) robustness checks or extensions.
Please carefully reread the detailed explanation of robustness checks and extensions
provided in the Progress Report instructions (Section 2.1 Item 4). Each robustness
check or extension must be motivated by a clear hypothesis or objection and include
a clear takeaway from the results.
• Has clear graphs and tables (provides labels where needed, uses suitable variable
names, informative captions and notes, etc.) so that the reader can understand the
provided information.
Other considerations:
• There are no penalties for insignificant results or results that do not pass robustness
checks. You just need to interpret the results appropriately.
• You can present additional results to the ones discussed in your progress report if
you feel that is useful to answer your research question more fully. But remember
that you need to discuss all presented regressions, so ensure that they are relevant.
Final report format
We recommend using the following format for the final report:
1. Title page
• Project title, Group ID and Member Names
• Abstract (a brief of your research and contributions)
2. Introduction
3. Data
4. Econometric model and methods
5. Results
4
6. Conclusions
7. Appendix and References (if any)
You may deviate from this format if it suits your report, except for the title page with
the indicated information.
2.3 Final report submission
• The final report submission is due Friday, 24 October, 11:59 p.m.
• The report must be submitted online as a single PDF file.
• Reports must use a font size of 12, line spacing of 1.5, and margins of at least 2 cm.
• Maximum word count: 1,700 words. Tables, graphs, Title page, Appendices and
References are exempted from the word count. Penalties may be imposed for ex-
ceeding the word count by 20% or more. There are no penalties for reports under
the word limit.
• Any data analysis has to be performed in R/RStudio, and the R-code used to
produce all results in the report must be submitted as an appendix. R-code does
not count towards the word count limit. No raw R output is allowed.
• You are required to keep a copy of your submission after it has been submitted.
5

学霸联盟