Overview

Students select an economic question that is of interest to them, and under close faculty supervision write an empirical paper.

A good empirical paper requires three components:

• A concise and sensible theoretical framework that is related to the questions to be asked.
• Reasonably good data.
• An experiment or event or a set of circumstances that give the data a chance to answer the questions asked. In short the model needs to be identifiable from the data at hand. Identifying a good question is a non-trivial exercise and takes time and effort.

Coursework

Students will complete ARE 219A and 219B as part of their project. These courses are currently offered in the Spring of the Second Year and the Fall of the Third year. The instructors in the course will set firm due dates for the steps that the students will take towards paper completion. The steps are set by the instructors and they currently are:

1. Pick an advisor and topic.
2. Plan of work including question, modeling strategy, dataset and a plan for estimation/testing.
3. Summary statistics and data description.
4. Short public presentation of the "research project" and of the empirical strategy. At this stage there will be comments by two students.
5. Draft of the paper.
6. Public presentation of paper.
7. Final due date. When 219A is offered in spring, the final due date will be early the following October.

The student producing the best empirical paper may be awarded the Hoos prize.

Normal Progress for the Empirical Paper

Departmental requirements for normal progress require that all of the first and second year requirements, including the empirical paper, be finished by the end of the Third Year. Failure to make normal progress is cause for dismissal, probation, and discontinuation of financial aid.

For compelling reasons such as health, parenthood, etc., a student may petition the GAC to delay the empirical project. Students who petition the GAC to delay the project for reasons related to the project itself, such as the quality of data collected or the adequacy of the question selected, will be treated in the same way as students who received a grade of less than B in ARE 219B.

A student who does not pass the project (a grade of B in ARE 219B is required to pass) is still required to produce an acceptable econometrics paper. The GAC will assign a due date for producing this paper. Normally that date will be before the end of the third graduate year. Such papers will be submitted to the Head Graduate Adviser who will then appoint a grading committee of at least two faculty members. A second failure on the paper, including a failure to produce the paper by the assigned deadline, is cause for dismissal.

Delay of the project disqualifies the student from competition for the Hoos Prize.

The Sidney Hoos Award for Best Second-Year Econometrics Paper

To promote econometrics study among graduate students, the department holds a Best Second Year Econometric Project Competition. The Sidney Hoos Award is given to the best paper.

Hoos Recipients

Erica Myers, May 2011, "Asymmetric Cost Passthrough in Multi-Unit Procurement Auctions: an Experimental Approach", Paper, Abstract.

Andrew Dustan, May 2010, "Have Elite Schools Earned their Reputation?: High School Quality and Student Tracking in Mexico City", Paper, Abstract.

Di Zeng, April 2009, "GMM Estimation and Monte Carlo Simulation of the Competitive Storage Model," Paper (Original Project version), Abstract.

Kelly Jones, October 2008, "Household Economies of Scale: Benefits for Age-grouped Children?", Paper (Original Project version), Abstract.

Sarah Dobson, October 2007, "From Acid Dip to Thriving Waters: The Impact of Emissions Reductions on Lake Recovery," Paper (Original Project version), Abstract.

Shanthi Nataraj, December 2006, "Residential Water Demand: Estimating Price Elasticity Under an Increasing Block Pricing System," Paper (Original Project version).

Jen Brown, May 2005, "How much is a dollar worth? Arbitrage on eBay and Yahoo," Abstract , Paper (Original Project version).

Aaron Swoboda, May 2004, "Regulation and The Shadow Price of Housing: A Test of the Neo-classical," Abstract, Paper (Original Project version).

Sarah Baird, May 2003, "Modeling Technology Adoption Decisions," Abstract, Paper (Original Project version).

Jennifer Alix, May 2002, "Deforestation in the Commons: An Institutional Approach," Abstract , Paper (Original Project version. Revision in Progress).

Kathy Baylis, May 2001, "Rent-Seeking and the Canadian Dairy Industry," Abstract, Paper (Original version).

Wolfram Schlenker, May 2000, "Estimating the Potential Cost from Global Climate Change." Paper (Original version).

Jiangfeng Zhang, May 1999, "Regulation of Stock Externalities With Correlated Costs," Abstract , Paper (This version: January 2003).