ECMT6007/ECON4954: Analysis of Panel Data School of Economics, University of Sydney Semester 1, 2021 Applied Project This group assignment assesses your ability to put econometric methods for panel data into practice and your collaborative skills with fellow classmates (if you com- plete the project with a team). You may also finish the project by yourself or form a group up to three members. Pick a topic which involves empirical analysis on real economic panel data. Pro- pose appropriate models and estimators for the research question and panel data you obtain. The final product of this applied project is a succinct and articulate report on your topic. The paper is expected to be 1.5-line spaced and about 12 – 15 pages (including references, tables and graphs with appropriate size). Please attach a group assignment cover sheet with the names of all members. The project is due in week 13 via Turnitin on Canvas. An announcement with the submission link will be posted in week 12. Assessment criteria 1. (10%) An appropriate title, abstract and key words. The title should capture the key issue of the paper and, better, the attention of readers. The abstract summarizes the research question, methodology, and main findings of the pa- per; and should be less than 200 words. Three to five key words should be provided below the abstract. 2. (10%) A well-defined and interesting research question: Use your creativity when you choose your topic. Explain why the topic is interesting or important. A practical concern is whether data are available. You may either find a new topic, or extend existing empirical results (e.g., estimate a new model with an old dataset). 1 3. (10%) Brief literature review : Give a short summary of what other researchers did on a related topic. Cite existing work in the References section. Note: Typically, (2) and (3) are included in the introduction. 4. (10%) Collection of panel data: Explain how and from where you collect the dataset. If applicable, also explain the steps involved in preparing the data for further analysis (e.g., data-cleaning, ways to handle missing data). 5. (20%) A well-defined econometric model for the panel data with well-justified assumptions : Explain carefully each of the assumptions (why they are neces- sary, whether they are realistic, etc). 6. (20%) Empirical analysis of data: This typically involves estimation and hy- potheses testing. You are expected to apply some econometric techniques to address the underlying research question. 7. (10%) Interpret and summarize the main findings. Interpret the results ob- tained in (6), and answer the research question in 1. Tables and graphs are useful for reporting estimation results. Note: (4) – (7) can be organized into two or three sections with appropriate section titles. 8. (10%) The paper should end with a conclusion, including a recap of main findings, potential issues or limitations, and possible extensions. Structure of an Empirical Paper The paper should be organized as follows 1. Introduction: Clearly state the research question, motivation, literature, and contribution 2. Data and data issues: source of data, summary statistics, data cleansing (if any), panel being short/long, balanced/unbalanced, missing values, sample selection concerns 3. Empirical models and estimation methods: why and how the model fit the research question and data, what estimators to use, which estimators are more likely to be consistent, endogeneity concerns 4. Estimation results: report the estimates in tables, interpretation of results, how the research question is addressed by the estimation results 2 5. Conclusion and discussion: summary of research question, methodology, and main results; discuss potential issues in estimation, mention possible extension. 6. References 7. Appendix (e.g. Stata/Python/R codes, estimation outputs) Here are some sources for real economic data sets (mostly available for free). You are by no means restricted to these sources, however. It is even better to obtain your own data. Some Sources of Economic Data IMF – http://www.imf.org/external/data.htm OECD – http://www.oecd.org/statistics/ Penn World Table – http://cid.econ.ucdavis.edu/pwt.html Samples of empirical economic research – nber.org Journal articles with downloadable real datasets – Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, Journal of Applied Econometrics. For household surveys, see also A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the World’s Household Panel Data Sets 3
