Economics 191: Topics in Economic Research, Fall 2023 Syllabus v1.2

This class provides a structure for students to write an original research paper in economics, while exposing them to frontier research by professors of the Department of Economics at UC Berkeley. Course grades are based on a series of research assignments that cumulate in a 20-25 page research paper. Students must choose a research question and begin refining that question, reviewing the literature, collecting data, and developing techniques to answer the research question relatively early in the term. The course requires continued engagement throughout the semester, with a series of tightly  scheduled  assignments.  We  do  not  recommend  the  course  if  you  have  trouble  meeting deadlines.

Meeting Structure. A typical three-hour session consists of a ca. 80 minute faculty talk (given by one of the economics professors at UC Berkeley), followed by a tutorial session on key research methods (given by the GSIs).

In the faculty talk, each week’s researcher presents research that she or he has been working on. The researchers may share related reading material or slides ahead of the meeting, which we will share and announce via bCourses.

In the tutorial session, the GSIs will present a series of lectures on basic methods for applied research. We will post the slides for the tutorials before the class meeting on the bCourses website. Students should review the slides before the meeting.

Laptop, Phone and Tablet Policy. Laptops and tablets are allowed, but for course reasons only, i.e., accessing Econ 191 materials in class or taking notes in class. Use of laptops and tablets for non-Econ 191 purposes is prohibited in class.

Attendance.  Since  the   faculty  speakers  donate  their  time  to   give   lectures   in  Econ  191,  our responsibility as a group is to encourage attendance and  participation.  In-person  attendance for guest-speakers talks is mandatory and graded with “bonus points”; we may give bonus points for participation. To accommodate specific concerns, up to two absences are not penalized, no warning or excuse needed. Please do not email us with potential excuses if you do not attend, as out of fairness to other students, we cannot extend this buffer and this system is to avoid adjudicating justified absences. Please understand that we typically cannot reply to attendance-related emails.

Tutorial Leaders and Research Mentors: the GSIs and Readers. The GSIs will lead the tutorials, which typically occur in the second part of each weekly session. Along with the GSIs, the Readers will serve as “ Research Mentors” and meet with you to discuss your research. Initially, students will be assigned to  Research  Mentors alphabetically,  but  Pareto improving trades  may occur when students  have other classes over their assigned Mentor’s office hours or in cases where the research topic chosen would match much better with an alternative Mentor.

Economics 191 has two GSIs:

and two Readers:

Tim Cejka                                  [email protected]

David Qihang Wu                       qihangwu@berkeley.edu

Research Mentor Office Hours:

David:               Tue 4:30-6:30pm, Evans 522 or https://berkeley.zoom.us/j/97179036427

Gerard:             Fr 10:00am-12:00pm, Evans 542

Petra:                Tue 9:00-11:00am (at the outdoor wooden tables in front of Yali’s Qualcomm Cafe

(part of Sutardja Dai Hall)

Tim:                   Tue 6:00-8:00pm, Evans Hall 640

The OH schedule and the meeting modality may be adjusted during the term, via bCourses announcement.

(Prof. Schoefer’s Econ 191 OHs will be by sign-up and commence the week of proposal v1. A sign-up sheet will be circulated then.)

Research Mentor Meetings. You will be able to meet with your Research Mentors on an as needed basis throughout the semester during their office hours. The modality of the  is walk-in by default, but we may switch to a sign-up basis (to be announced). Typically, these meetings will be short, 10 minute  meetings where you should come  prepared to discuss your  biggest questions / concerns related to your research proposal in a concise and efficient manner. This will be a good touch point to ensure that you are on the right track for your final paper.

Research Paper. Each student will write a research paper addressing an important, well-formulated economics research question. Typically, the most successful papers are empirical, either they are descriptive or they aim to address a causal question, using econometric methods and addressing a question of economic interest.

The required format is:

20-25 pages

12-point font

1-inch margins (left and right, top and bottom)

Double spaced

Times New Roman or Arial (or similar Latex fonts)

The file format must be a PDF file. It will be submitted through the course website.

The page limit includes text, tables, figures, and references. If it strengthens your paper, you can, but do not have to, add an appendix with supplementary material (e.g., data appendix or additional robustness checks). But the main text of the paper (20-25 pages) should be self-contained. A reader

should be able to understand the paper without reading the appendix (skimming the appendix should suffice).

The  Centrality  of  Empirical  Work  (Data  Analysis).  Research  papers  must  include  a  formal  data analysis. We do permit students to include in the brainstorming assignment (Assignment 1) at most one non-empirical idea. However, for your final paper to not be empirical, you must obtain permission in advance from the GSI/Reader after Assignment 1. A 100% theoretical paper must be rigorous and mathematically based. Purely narrative papers will not be approved.

For   help   with  econometrics,  we   recommend:  Adrian   Colin   Cameron   and   Pravin   K.   Trivedi, Microeconomics  Using  Stata,  by  Stata  Press  (available  online),  or  James  Stock’s  Introduction  to Econometrics textbook. Some of the early tutorial sessions will involve Stata exercises.

Stata and Other Statistical Programs. The campus has 20 concurrent licenses for Stata, which are free for  you  to  use  https://software.berkeley.edu/stata.  You  can  also  purchase  your  own  copy  at  a discounted        student         price        or         obtain        a         one-week        free         student        trial https://www.stata.com/order/new/edu/gradplans/student-pricing/.

This same website contains recorded tutorials for using Stata. The campus Data Lab typically provides live Zoom tutorials for using Stata https://dlab.berkeley.edu/.

If you are competent using Python or R, that is also acceptable. It is highly unlikely that MS Excel will suffice for your final paper.

Academic     Misconduct      and      Plagiarism.      According     to      UC      Berkeley’s      honor      code http://sa.berkeley.edu/conduct/integrity/definition, “As a member of the UC Berkeley community, I act with honesty, integrity, and respect for others.” We expect everyone to obey this code. Please additionally     review    the     material     on     https://gsi.berkeley.edu/gsi-guide-contents/academic- misconduct-intro/ , especially the sections on plagiarism. We will check carefully for plagiarism.

Duplication. The requirement for this course is to write an original research paper. You must not turn in a paper that duplicates or includes only a modest extension of a paper of yours prepared for another concurrent or previous course. When in doubt (i.e., if you have conducted research related to the 191 paper beforehand), email the professor before proposal v0 is due with a summary of the previous research (and attach any potential paper you already wrote).

Grading. The following table shows the points awarded for each assignment. (Attendance points will be used by the professor on a case by case basis and may also serve as bonus points.)

Assignment                                                           Points

Research proposal v1                                         15

Research proposal v2                                         15

Draft of results                                                       15

Final paper                                                             45

Attendance                                                           10

Regrades. Requests for regrades will be accepted for reasons of possible clerical error only, and will be handled by the professor only. In a typical year, zero regrades should be expected.

Assignments. Page format for all submissions below (except for final paper) is font size of 12, font Times New Roman or Arial, 1 inch margins. Single-spaced.

.    1: Brainstorming research questions

o On 3 single-spaced pages, brainstorm 3 potential research questions. You will select one of these questions for your research proposal after receiving feedback from your research  mentor.  What  is  this  question,  why  may  this  question  be  interesting  or important, and what may be a way to tackle the question in a research paper with data and different potential empirical designs?

.    2: Proposal v1

o Now, commit to  1  research question.  Unless you  received an exception from your Research  Mentor,  this  topic  must  be  from  the  brainstorming  assignment.  This assignment will be approximately 3 pages in total length with the following structure:

o Page 1:

. Paragraph 1 (at most ¼ of the page): statement of question

. Paragraph 2:  basic approach to answering this question (research design and strategy)

. Paragraph  3:   list  and  discuss  of  concrete  data  sources  to   be   used  in  the question, including verification of data availability and accessibility

o Page 2:

.    Literature review: cite and discuss existing research on this question

.    Discuss problems with this evidence, or why you think evidence on this research question is insufficient

o Page 3:

. Explain why your approach is better or solves the problem you identify on page 2. (This could be methodology, or a new empirical context, or a new data set.)

.    3: Proposal v2

o By this date, you should have your data set available and started analyzing it, and honed your research design.

o 7 pages

. 3 pages: attach proposal v1 again (update if needed)

o Pages 4-7: present and summarize your data and research design.

. Divide between (at least 1/3 of the 4 new pages for each) two topics:

.    Discuss  in detail the data you will  use (how many observations? How many variables?). Ideally, you will have obtained the data and explored it.  Report on your explorations. Are the data  up to the task? Which problems do you see?

.    Elaborate further on your research design: which concrete econometric model(s) you will estimate (what regression equation(s)), which control variables, be clear whether you have the data and why you need those controls, etc. How do you interpret your main regression coefficients?

How  will  your  regression  model  or  empirical  analysis  answer  your research question?

.    4:  Overview of your data & initial results

o Include the 7 pages of proposal v2 (and update if needed)

o Add 3 new pages of text + separately 2 pages at least containing the 3 tables/figures described below:

. Table  1:  summary  statistics,  e.g.,  means  of  key  variables you will  use  and observation counts

. Figure  1:  key correlation or time series  patterns in the data (e.g., time series graph, bar chart, pie chart, etc.)

o Initial, preliminary results from an empirical (econometric) analysis that implements

your research design

. Expand   further  the   discussion  of  the   econometric   model you   preview  in Proposal v2. Now, describe the concrete empirical analysis you are conducting

that underlie your first initial results.

. Table 2: initial regression estimates

. Describe these initial results. Interpret the magnitudes of the main coefficients, and how they change across different regression specifications (e.g., with and without   controls).    Discuss   statistical   significance    and   precision    of   the coefficients.

. Provide a brief interpretation of your (initial, preliminary) results in light of your research question.

.    5: Final paper

o The final paper will not be accepted after the deadline. There will not be any extensions for the final paper. It is not possible to compress the writing of the paper, so you should spread out your writing over a prolonged period of time, which is why we have the earlier assignments during the semester. No extensions will be allowed.

o See page 2 above for a more in-depth description of final paper requirements and formatting.

Deadlines and Late Assignments. The deadlines for the assignments are listed in the schedule below. The assignments are due at 12:30pm on each Econ 191 date listed in the first column. (An exception is the final paper, which is due at 5:00pm.)

For all assignments excl. the final paper, 20% of the points are deducted for each partial late date (so 30min or 23h late reduce points by 20%, 24h1min late, 40% etc.). You absolutely must turn in every assignment  eventually.  Deadlines  are  below.  Do  not  take  this course if you cannot meet  those deadlines.  For  those  with  DSP  accommodations  only,  we  can  discuss  assignment  extensions  if carefully discussed in advance.

Conflicts and Hybrid Format. Econ 191 is in person only (there is no course capture/recording). Econ 191 does not permit enrollment with course conflicts.