ECON4331
WRITING ASSIGNMENT 2025
Assignment objective
The objective of this assignment is to give you an opportunity to:
1. Use analytical and empirical skills together with economic concepts to explore an empirical phenomenon related to economic development.
2. Learn how to use state-of-the art tools to perform exploratory data analysis and write reproducible code for data analysis.
3. Learn how to write a formal technical report underpinned by economic logic and evidence from data evidence.
Assignment expectations
The final report consists of an economically informed data analysis related to a development topic. The analysis involves presenting data relevant to the issue you are studying, exploring this data for relationships between the relevant variables, and providing your own explanations of why this data is pertinent. Your analysis must be grounded in material covered in class or in relevant economic literature. Survey reports (reporting other people’s work/ideas on issues) or reports centered on hypothetical scenarios are not acceptable. The target audience for your report are college graduates.
Canvas will be used to organize all files related to the writing assignment. Late assignments will only be accepted in special circumstances and with verifying documentation. Late submissions cannot be accepted for the final report.
If you have any problem understanding what is expected from you or how to go about completing the writing assignment successfully, please contact the instructor or the writing assistant.
Assignment parts
The four parts of the writing assignment are listed below:
1. Topic, Theory, and Data
2. Empirical Analysis
3. Full Draft
4. Final Report
Each part is graded separately and must be turned in by the due date. Each assignment must be uploaded directly to Canvas as a PDF. All uploaded files must contain your last name and the part of the assignment being submitted. For example: Malmberg_Topic, or Malmberg_Full_Draft.
Some parts of the assignment may also require you to upload the data and code used for your assignment. In these cases, your assignments should be reproducible; this means another person should be able to exactly reproduce your assignment using only the data and code you submit.
1. Topic, Theory, and Data -
You should submit 1,000-1,500 words stating the topic, discussing its relationship to theory, and an initial analysis of the data source used to analyze the topic.
The submission has five sections:
Background (~200-400 words): State and briefly discuss your chosen question. In your discussion, you should use economic theory and results from class to explain why your question is interesting. Cite at least two papers from the literature or the course readings and discuss how they are relevant to your question. You should also indicate the literature to which the readings belong, that is, the papers that the course readings cite (look at their bibliographies) and the papers cited by them as well. You can also include papers that cite the course readings, which can be easily found using Google Scholar.
Hypothesis (one paragraph, ~100 words): Based on your background discussion, state a hypothesis in terms of a relationship you expect to see in the data (e.g., “women with higher education have lower mortality among their children”). Also state potential secondary hypotheses that you plan to explore (e.g., “the relationship between education and infant mortality might vary between rural and urban areas”).
Data source (~200 words): State the data source that you will be using. Include a brief description of the data source in terms of data type, coverage, and purpose of the original data collection. You should use a micro dataset, that is, a dataset where the observation unit is individuals, households, or businesses.
Measurement (~400 words): Explain the variables in your dataset that you will use to test your hypothesis and why you selected them. Explain how you plan to manipulate the data to test your hypothesis (e.g., construct a proxy for infant mortality of a mother’s children from age of death of her children; or collapsing measures of educational wage premia onto country level to measures relationship with GDP per capita).
Preliminary results (~100 words): Construct a plot from your dataset using your selected variables that is relevant to your hypothesis (e.g., a bar plot showing infant mortality by highest attained education level in a particular country and year). Briefly comment on how it relates to your hypothesis; it is okay if your hypothesis is not confirmed.
Selecting a topic:
A list of suggested topics will be provided for you to choose from.
You must get approval for your topic selection from the writing assistant.
Topics from outside the suggested topics list may be allowed, but in these cases an in-person meeting with the writing assistant is required in order to receive approval for your topic selection.
Forming a hypothesis:
Be careful that your hypothesis is not too general or vague. If it is, narrow it to some specific hypothesis related to a more general question. Remember that projects with well-defined topics and hypotheses are easier to complete successfully.
Different types of papers:
Descriptive question: You are encouraged to write a descriptive paper, e.g., how have fertility rates for literate versus illiterate women evolved over time. If you do this, it is crucial that you connect your findings to economic theory and explain what we learn from these descriptive relationships.
Revisiting old question: You are allowed to ask a standard question in the literature. In this case, you should still do an independent data analysis, and apply the analysis to a new country or using a new (or updated) dataset. Direct replications are not acceptable.
Causal question: While you are not required to establish causality in the writing assignment, causal identification could form the basis of a very successful writing assignment if you have a credible way to identify a casual effect. If you have an idea for credible causal identification, speak to your writing assistant who can help you assess whether the idea is feasible to implement.
2. Empirical Analysis-
• You should submit an empirical section of your paper. The primary output should be one figure and one table capturing your key result(s). The figures and tables should be fully polished and professionally formatted.
• The figure:
o Should effectively visualize your main result(s). Heterogeneity should not be captured with multiple figures, but by exploiting coloring, line types, shapes, different panels, etc.
o Should be correctly labelled in line with instructions in the class and should be generated directly within R.
o Should have a note below it describing the content of the figure in sufficient detail to make it understandable without the accompanying main text.
• The table:
o Should use a regression to convey the information displayed in the main figure.
o Should be outputted from R using a package for regression tables like stargazer or equivalent. If Stargazer is used, we recommend having html output combined with a screenshot. Any other method used should achieve a similar level of professionalism.
• The figure and table should be supported by 1,000-1,500 words of text. The following parts should be included:
o Data section: polished version of data source section in Topic, Theory, and Data (~200 words)
o Methodology section: Explain the construction of all primary and secondary variables used in the analysis. You can give statistical interpretation of your regression table here. (~400 words)
o Results section: walk through all the results in the figure and table. You can give economic interpretation of your regression table here. (~400 words)
o Discussion: interpret your results, discuss potential issues and potential further analyses. (~200 words)
Discussion Section can be combined with the Results Section.
• Additional information about the data section will be supplied in class.
3. Full Draft -
● You should submit a full draft of your report that is 2000-3000 words in length (excluding your Appendix and References sections).
● The draft should build on your previous empirical results and convey them in a complete technical report.
● If the first full draft is good, you will only have to make minor revisions before turning it in as your final report and will not need to include new material.
● Please write your report in size 12 font, double-spaced, with one inch margins on all sides.
● Make sure to follow the paper structure outlined below. Feel free to make subsections as needed.
Your report should contain the following sections. Please see the “Paper Structure.pdf” document for more information.
Title Page: Make sure to include your report’s title, the date of submission, and your full name.
Introduction: Clearly describe the development issue you chose and the way you have decided to analyze it. The question that you are trying to answer should be included in your introduction.
○ In the first or second paragraph of your introduction, you must include your main result. This should concisely convey your main finding to the reader. Please bold your results statement.
○ The introduction should also explain why you selected the development issue you focus on and the data you use. Why are they interesting?
Literature Review: Read at least two or three papers related to your topic and provide brief summaries of them. Make sure you formally and correctly cite them using a standard citation format. You should also comment on how your analysis relates to these papers, both the differences and the similarities.
Hypothesis: State your primary and secondary hypotheses based on your literature review.
Data source/Methodology/Main results: See Empirical Analysis assignment.
Extensions: Start from the results in the Empirical Section and perform an extension by exploring some dimension in the results further. For example, consider whether a particular finding is different in urban and rural areas or in rich and poor countries.
References: List the references and data used for your report. You must provide a complete list of all references and sources used in your paper. Include only the sources you actually used in your paper and make sure your sources are credible.
[Optional] Appendix: If you’d like to include any additional graphs, tables, or mathematical derivations in your report, please put them in an appendix at the end of your report and clearly reference figures as needed in your main text.
4. Final Report -
● You should submit a final, polished version of your report, taking into account the comments made on previous assignments. The final report must be 2500 to 4000 words in length, excluding the Appendix and References sections.
● You should not need to add new material at this stage , although you are allowed to if you have discovered elements that would substantially alter the logic or the conclusions of your paper.
● Remember to keep a copy of the final paper for your records.
Grading criteria
● Each part of the assignment will receive an individual grade and will be graded separately.
● Your writing assignment grade will be divided in the following way:
○ Topic, Theory, and Data: 20%
○ Empirical Analysis: 20%
○ Full Draft: 20%
○ Final Report: 40%
● Grading will be based on:
1. The quality of your data analytics. For example, logical motivation of hypothesis, appropriate choice of variables and clear discussion of measurement.
2. The quality of your presentation. The use of illustrative diagrams, charts, and tables. Clear labelling and effective use of graph attributes, e.g., coloring, texts in graphs, labels, and multiple panels.
3. Clear reasoning around anomalies in data and choice of modelling techniques.
4. The presentation of the report (e.g., how much your report adheres to the standards of professional technical writing, how well you explain difficult concepts and arguments, the coherence and clarity of the presentation, the amount of spelling and grammatical errors, etc.).
5. Whether or not you followed the assignment instructions.
APPENDIX
Writing Center
Proper grammar is required. If you feel you need help with your English writing skills you are advised to use the University’s Center for Writing. They provide free support for students who need help with writing. Go early and go often. Here is their web address:
http://writing.umn.edu
Writing techniques
The following are some common problems of students' reports:
● The paper lacks focus and is not well organized. A major reason why this happens is that students cannot decide on THE most important message that they want the readers to get from the report.
● There is not enough analysis and explanation in the report. Often students state some ideas or conjectures without explaining step by step the logic behind these. You should guide the reader through your arguments carefully to make sure that they understand them.
● The use of quotations to substitute for the explanations. A common mistake students make in their reports is that they use quotations from textbooks or articles as their arguments. It is acceptable for students to use some ideas suggested by others, but students should explain the ideas in their own words and should not simply copy the quotations without their own explanations. The total number of quotations in a paper should be limited; they should be used to highlight a particular idea or show its importance.
● Frequent grammatical and spelling errors in the report. To avoid these errors, students should ask someone who is good in composition to proofread their reports. Students should also use the many writing services available on campus to get advice on correct grammar usage.
● Confusing cause with effect. Another common mistake is not recognizing that an apparent cause of something might instead be an effect of that something. You should give evidence of the cause or effect or acknowledge that the evidence of causality here is not clear.
● Many students run into trouble realizing late in the semester that they don’t have enough data to support their thesis, at which point it is too late to change the topic. Make sure you plan ahead to avoid this situation.
References
● You should use various resources and cite them properly.
● You can use academic journals, popular newspapers (e.g., Wall Street Journal), magazines (e.g. The Economist), and/or reports from various institutions.
● Please make sure you have a mix of internet and other sources; make sure the sources are well-reputed and credible; that is, do not choose all references from news magazines or obscure internet sources.
● You can check here for tips on citing:
https://www.lib.umn.edu/howto/citationguides
Data Sources
We will discuss possible data sources in class.
Useful Reading
1. “So You Have To Write an Economics Term Paper...” by L. Officer, D. Saks, and J. Saks.
2. “Style, Lessons in Clarity and Grace” Joseph M Williams and Joseph Bizup.
3. “The Writer's Guide to College Economics” by T. L. Wyrich.
4. “Economical Writing” by Deirdre McCloskey.
5. “Sense of Style” Steven Pinker
Scholastic Dishonesty
● The College of Liberal Arts defines scholastic dishonesty as “any act that violates the right of another student with respect to academic work or that involves misrepresentation of a student's own academic work. Scholastic dishonesty includes (but is not limited to) cheating on assignments or exams; plagiarizing (misrepresenting as one's own anything done by another); submitting the same or substantially similar papers for more than one course without the consent of all instructors concerned; depriving another of necessary course materials; or sabotaging another's work.”
● Students who commit any form of the scholastic dishonesty described above will receive a grade "F" for their Writing Assignment.
● Plagiarism: This involves passing off anyone else's work as your own, and includes copying a whole paper or parts of it and claiming it as your own work. It also includes turning in your own same or essentially similar paper for two or more courses. The University has very strict rules concerning plagiarism. If you use any other person's work, words, or ideas, please cite and acknowledge the sources. Note that the University has purchased a program that allows professors to check if any student paper, essay, or research paper has been copied or paraphrased from the Internet. We will use this program (Turnitin.com) to check for plagiarism. Please check the following website for more details on plagiarism: http://writing.umn.edu/tww/plagiarism/plagarism_index.html