Reference no: EM13380875

he one supposed to be done is Project 1; Reexamining the stylized facts.

A.  What You Already Know from the Syllabus

There will be three short research projects (each with about 2,500 words).

Project 1: Reexamination of Stylized Facts of Development, 1970-2012

Project 2: Review of Fiscal and Monetary Policies, 1970-2012

Project 3: Review of Trade Policies, 1970-2012

You will need to pick one developing country for each project. It typically makes sense to keep the same country for each project, though you are free to switch countries if you like to do so. All the data needed for the projects will be provided to you in an Excel file as soon as you inform me what country you have picked. There will also be a Guidance Note with further information (like the list of countries you can choose from). It is crucial that you read the Guidance Note very carefully before you start working on any Research Project.

B.  Contents

Your research project is supposed to provide an empirical analysis of the research project's topic. You will need to use MS Excel to provide graphical evidence for your analysis / statements. Given that every country is different and likely has some differences to the standard case, it will be important that you examine to what degree and/or in what aspects your country is similar as well as different to the standard pattern/theory. If there are major differences, try to find some explanations for them, though try to avoid unfounded speculations.

The more country-specific your analysis is, the better will be your project paper. Make sure you consult the PowerPoints as well as the required readings for possible explanations. They might not explain specifics of your country, but still contain useful information. Given the limited length of the paper, you have to focus on the most important issues. For example, for the first research project, you have to re-examine the evolution of the shares of agriculture, industry and services.

While unlikely, there might be some data errors. If you think the data does not make sense, please let me know as soon as possible so that I can give you suggestions for what to do.

Assume you write your reexamination/review for an educated person with no background of economics. That is, you need to explain any macroeconomic theory you may apply. However, you do not need to explain standard terms like, for example, gross domestic product (GDP).

C.        Structure

Your paper must be structured (and will be graded) as follows:

Cover Page with Abstract (an incomplete/missing cover page gets a 0.1-0.3 points deduction)

• contains a) the title (of your research project, including the country of your choice), b) your name, c) the date of submission, d) the abstract, and e) a footnote (with the footnote reference after the last word of the title) indicating that the paper has been written for this course. Please see a sample cover page on page 4 of this Guidance Note.

I.                Introduction (10 percent of grade)

• includes a statement on what your research project is about;
• is supposed to have about 250 words.

II.    Brief Literature Review (20 percent of grade)[1]

• reviews and summarizes the existing literature specific to your topic and if available, your country. (You might not find literature matching the topic of the project for your country, try to find the best matching literature, for example, for the region if country-specific literature is not available.)
• is supposed to have about 500 words.

III.            Actual Reexamination/Review (60 percent of grade)

• you have to use the World Bank's database to create some graphs that illustrate your points;
• requires some sub-headings (III.1, III.2, etc.), for example: for the first Research Project, you should have five sub-headings (one for each of the five stylized facts you examine);
• is supposed to have about 1,500 words.

IV.            Conclusion (10 percent of grade)

• may contain some summary of what was discussed but is supposed to go beyond a simple summary, possibly pointing out possible solutions, next steps, etc.;
• is supposed to have about 250 words.

References (an incomplete/missing reference section gets a 0.1-0.3 points deduction)

• The list of references in alphabetical order (based on the author's last name) will be positioned after the conclusion. Please see a sample reference section on page 5 of this Guidance Note. You can change the style of the reference section as long as you make sure the style is consistent and the references are complete. Providing a website address does not substitute for providing the available publication details. The reference section does not count towards the words count.

D.        Country Selection

The research project has to be on one of the following countries:

Angola, Argentina, Bangladesh, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Honduras, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Korea (South), Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam, Zambia.

Please note that some developing countries have been excluded due to: 1) data constraints (e.g., Somalia), and/or 2) being an untypical developing country (e.g., Saudi Arabia, where oil dominates the economy), and/or 3) the country has been analyzed too many times (e.g., China, India).

Use all the years for which data available within 1970-2012. You should estimate the value of missing years based on averages of existing years as far as it makes sense. If data is only available for every five years, use a bar graph instead of a line graph. If you realize that the country of your choice has significant data gaps that hampers your analysis, please use another country.

E.        Other Requirements

• You need to submit your research project as a MS Word file. Please use MS Word's spell and grammar check (using American English). You should spell out all acronyms the first time you use one.
• You have to paste all the graphs (which you created in the MS Excel file) into your MS Word file. Please copy the graphs by using "Paste Special", then select "Picture (Windows Metafile)" or "Picture (Enhanced Metafile)" to avoid that the graphs mess up the text format and use up to much memory. Even though your grade will be based solely on the MS Word file, you also have to submit your Excel sheet that contains your data, graphs, and possible calculations (as I may need to check what you did, calculated, etc.).
• You are typically not allowed to use data expressed in a country's currency. Please use data that is corrected for inflation (i.e., typically referred to as "real" or "constant" instead of "nominal").
• Here is how you should provide the source below each graph you create based on the World Bank data: "Source: Created by author based on World Bank (2014)." And then, in the Reference section (at the end of the paper), you would have (subject to your reference style/format):

"World Bank (2014) World Development Indicators database (Washington, DC: The World Bank); as posted on the World Bank website: https://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/ (downloaded on May 10, 2014)."

• References within the text of the paper may include either a direct quote or an idea from the literature explained in your own words. Both must be appropriately cited, either using the last name(s) of the author(s) followed by the publication year [for example: .... Sachs (2007) showed ...] or using a footnote [for example: "THE QUOTE"[2]]. All the publication details will then be provided in the section on "References".
• Finally, while I value the contents/quality of your paper (not how beautiful or how long your paper is), sloppy appearances, typos, too short papers, etc. may incur some point reductions).