About the term paper:
Economics
576 is a graduate course. Accordingly,
your term paper should reflect graduate level effort and performance. In addition to selecting and covering an
appropriate (and appropriately narrowed) topic, your paper should reflect good
organization, punctuation and documentation.
Some Specifics:
Frequent,
flagrant spelling and typographical errors are distracting—and reflect a lack
of effort and concern for quality.
It is not a moral
failure to run a spell check or even proofread
a paper before submitting it.
Proper grammar
need not be restricted to English composition courses. Pay attention to basic subject and verb
agreement. Words such as “to” “too” and “two”,
“there” and “their”, “hire” and “higher”, “graph” and “graft”, and “affect” and
“effect” are not interchangeable. Use them correctly.
Documentation: The purpose of documentation is merely to give credit where credit is due. If you are summarizing someone else’s
ideas/work/results (as it is expected you will),
then footnote the source. If you are
using their actual words as well, then use quotation marks. (See below “Statement
on Plagiarism”)
Finally, an
Internet address (URL) does NOT constitute adequate or proper
documentation. The author of the work
including his/her affiliation, and/or the name of the organization hosting the
material must be included in the citation.
POSSIBLE TERM
PAPER SUBJECTS
NOTE: The purpose of this list is merely to provide
ideas – perhaps a starting point - toward your developing a topic. It is by no means required that your topic
come from this list. The only
requirement is that the topic you select must relate directly to the
course—macroeconomic theory and policy.
1.
Effects of tax policy on private capital formation
2.
Investment tax credits:
how effective?
3.
Effects of inflation on private capital formation
4.
The structure and accuracy of
5.
The value-added tax:
macroeconomic implications
6.
Interest rates as a determinant of consumer spending
7.
Interest elasticity of investment demand
8.
Time lags in monetary (or fiscal) policy
9.
Econometric models: structure and accuracy
10. Friedman’s permanent income hypothesis
11. The Phillips Curve phenomenon: a critical
analysis
12.
13. The “crowding out” effect
14. Monetarist view of the economy
15. The demand for money function
16. Reaction of the (your choice) industry to
cyclical instability
17. Multipliers:
theory and empirical evidence
18. The current state of business cycle theory
19. The Accelerator: theory and empirical evidence
20. The “natural rate” of unemployment: theory, significance…
21. Dollarization:
the macroeconomic effects on an economy
22. Rational expectations theory
Statement on
Plagiarism -
Papers submitted in fulfillment of requirements of Economic 576
(Macroeconomic Theory and Policy) will be subject to the following standard
relative to plagiarism. This policy has been adapted from definitions, policies
and procedures established by
General Principle:
Giving credit to someone whose work has helped one is courteous and
honest. Plagiarism, on the other hand,
is a form of fraud. Proper
acknowledgment marks the difference. A
hallmark of the educated student is the ability to recognize and acknowledge
information derived from others. I
expect that the student will be scrupulous in crediting those sources that have
contributed to the development of his/her ideas. In particular, it is the responsibility of
the student to learn the proper forms of citation: directly copied material
must always be in quotes; even ideas and organization derived from another’s
work need to be acknowledged.
Paraphrasing constitutes an abbreviated restatement of someone else’s
analysis or conclusions.
Definition: Plagiarism
is presenting someone else’s work as though it were your own. More specifically, plagiarism is to present
as your own a sequence of words quoted without quotation marks from another
writer; a paraphrased passage from another writer’s work; facts or ideas
gathered, organized, and reported by someone else, orally and/or in writing.
Penalty: Since plagiarism is a matter of fact, not of the student’s
intention, it is crucial that acknowledgement of sources is accurate and
complete. Even where there is no
conscious intention to deceive, the failure to make appropriate acknowledgement
constitutes plagiarism. Any paper that
has been plagiarized will be given the grade of F.