YOUR ECONOMETRICS PAPER BASIC TIPS There are a couple of websites that you can browse to give you

some ideas for topics and data. Think about what you want to do with this paper. Econometrics is a great tool to market when looking for jobs. A well-written econometrics paper and your presentation can be a nice addition to your resume. You are not expected to do original research here. perfectly acceptable. ead 'tudenmund(s $hapter )). %ne of the most frustrating things in doing an econometrics paper is finding the data. *o not spend a lot of time on a topic before determining whether there is data available that will allow you to answer your +uestion. It is a good idea to write down your ideal data set that would allow you to address your topi ! I" you "ind that the a#aila$le data is not e#en lose to what you had originally desired% you &ight want to hange your topi . Also, remember that knowing the location of your data - website, reference book, etc - is not the same as having your data available to use. #t may take a "%&. time to get the data in a format that E/#E0' can read. *o not leave this till the last minute. 1or most data, # enter the data into Excel first. # save the Excel sheet in the oldest version, namely 2' Excel 0orksheet 3.) . The reason is that format can be read by most programs whereas newer formats may or may not be read. Eviews easily reads an Excel sheet 3.) version. You should use the first row to label your columns 4variables5. 6e sure to follow the naming conventions in Eviews and do not use ($( or ( E'#*7A"'(. Eviews can only use numeric data. A warning for time series analysis - #n order to find interesting results, you need variation in your data. 1or example, it would be difficult to find the effect of defense spending on American manufacturing industries if defense spending does not change much from year to year. Education and health spending might be a different story, because you can take advantage of state and local spending in these areas as sources of variation. There are then two options - you could look at the variation across states in a single year, or construct a panel data set where you have information for a number of states for a number of years. #f you find that you are looking at a topic that has little variation, consider doing a cross-country comparison. Also, remember that it isn8t necessary to use the most recent data necessary. Econometrics is very useful in the field of economic history. The $ensus *ata are available back to )9:; and there are many other historical data sources available. E!"#$AT#%& of prior results is

'ENERA( SOURCES These are suggestions - they are not meant to limit your choice of a topic. www.rfe.org - E'%7 $E' 1% E$%&%2#'T'. This is a good overall site 4and has a lot of good data5. www.nber.org - &ational 6ureau of Economic esearch. The &6E does a lot of really excellent empirical research. The papers on this site might be a bit technical, but browse through their titles for ideas. http)**e ono&i s!a$out! o&*&$ody!ht& - .eneral site, the specific topics 4health economics, sports economics5 may be good sources for ideas. The *ATA '%7 $E' may also lead you to a topic. http)**www!i psr!u&i h!edu* - #nter-7niversity $onsortium for !olitical and 'ocial esearch. A good source for all kinds of data. <ust do a search for the subject you are interested in and see what comes up. http=>>dpls.dacc.wisc.edu>newcatalog>browse.asp 0isconsin(s topical index of data, most of the data is in the #$!' 4above5 but the index is rather nice in choosing a topic. http=>>www.ipums.umn.edu>usa>index.html - $ensus *ata - this is a . EAT site. You can download individual level sample data from )9:;-)??;. 3;;; data isn8t yet available in this format, but you can get aggregate census data from www.census.gov http=>>www-personal.buseco.monash.edu.au>@hyndman>T'*"> Time series data library single variable data sets, many rather esoteric 4e.g., monthly public drunkenness in 2inneapolis5. http=>>odwin.ucsd.edu>cgi-bin>easyAsearch3B searchCgetdataDfileC>data>data.htmlDprintCnotitleDheaderC>header>data.header 'ocial 'cience *ata on the &et

E+UCATION # am sure you are all familiar with the 7' &ews ankings of $olleges. These data are available 4in #$!' 5 and can be used to answer a number of +uestions concerning education - +uestions about tuition, professor8s salaries, +uality of students, etc. Also, look at www.nces.ed.gov - the &ational $entre for Education 'tatistics. 1or a lot of education topics, you might want to pull in location data - i.e. if you are looking at local school funding issues, you would need other information about the area. A good source for location information is the $ity and $ounty *ata 6ooks 4available at

the #$!' site5. These give very detailed information at the county level - things like average income, age distribution of population, housing values, etc. ,EA(T, There is a tremendous amount is econometric +uestions in the health field - +uestions concerning individual behaviour and health, retirement and health, health policies, insurance issues, international issues, labour issues 4nursing shortages, gender of doctors5 etc. Possible Questions: *oes smoking>drinking affect your salaryB ) 0ould a tax on junk food reduce consumptionB #.e. how price sensitive is demand for 1rench friesB *o states with higher unemployment levels have higher levels of suicideB 0hat determines the level of health insurance held by an individualB Are individuals in cities more>less healthy than individuals in rural areasB *oes trade extend life expectancyB Sources http=>>www.cdc.gov>nchs> - &ational Eealth 'tatistics http=>>www.who.int>healthAtopics>en> - 0orld Eealth %rganisation A to F list of health topics. http=>>www.cdc.gov>nchs>datawh>stprofiles.htm - Also &E', this gives state level health statistics. #f you are doing a micro level study, look for surveys that ask health +uestions such as= http=>>www.icpsr.umich.edu=9;9;>.''>homepage.htm - .eneral 'ocial 'urvey - annual survey of Americans 4is also available for other countries5 that asks a nice variety of +uestions. "ook under Gsubject8 for A to F list of +uestion topics. Eas some great +uestions like - how happy are youB http=>>hrsonline.isr.umich.edu> - Eealth and etirement study - survey on older Americans. A warning though, this dataset is a bit difficult to work with. #f you are interested in doctor8s characteristics and how they treat their patients, check out the $ommunity Tracking 'tudy !hysician 'urvey which is at the #$!' data page 4see above for link5. 1or international data on broad health measures, check out the web pages of the 7nited &ations the 0orld 6ank and the 0E%. These have good data links.

!rof. 6art Eamilton 46usiness 'chool5 wrote an article on alcohol consumption and salary with some interesting results. HAlcohol and Earnings= *oes *rinking Yield a 0age !remiumBH 4with /. Eamilton5. $anadian <ournal of Economics , I; 4)??J5 )IK-)K).

URBAN ISSUES As noted above, the $ounty and $ity *ata 6ooks 4#$!' web page5 are a great source of information at the county level. Eousing values, commuting time, average income, industry information, etc. There are a lot of interesting transportation issues - commute times, airline prices, train travel, metro buses, etc. $onsider looking at automotive industry statistics, government spending information. $heck out the 6ureau of Tranportation 'tatistics 4www.bts.gov5. (A- AN+ ECONOMICS #f you are interested in law, there are a number of interesting econometric topics. These can range from some analyses of the incarceration rates by states, crime statistics 4again using the county and city data books5, spending on public defenders, characteristics of inmates>victims, etc. You can also look at the effect that state law>regulation have on economic or demographic variables - i.e. if different states have different mandatory minimum sentencing for certain crimes, can you see some differenceB $heck out the 6ureau of <ustice 'tatistics - http=>>www.ojp.usdoj.gov>bjs> (ABOR There are tons of possible econometric papers dealing with labour topics - wages, gender issues, unions, retirement issues, unemployment, etc. And labour issues can be joined with many other topics to address the linkages. *o long spells of unemployment increase the likelihood of family violence, substance abuse, crimeB $ombine health and labour and consider topics surrounding the employment of doctors>nurses, midwives vs. %bs. $ombine law and labour and look at the legal profession - are more lawyers a good thingB "abor topics also fall neatly into macro studies. You might consider how government spending, war, monetary policy, etc. affect employment rates, or unemployment rates. You can be more specific 4and potentially more interesting5 by looking at specific employment rates - does a government policy have a different effect on the employment of men>women>young adults>highly educated, etc. Data sources: 6ureau of "abor 'tatistics - www.bls.gov $ensus 6ureau - www.census.gov 'tate labor information - http=>>www.bls.gov>bls>ofolist.htm $onsumer Expenditure 'urvey Eomepage - http=>>www.bls.gov>bls>ofolist.htm CROSS.COUNTRY COMPARISONS http=>>unstats.un.org>unsd>methods>inter-natlinks>sdAnatstat.htm - a 7nited &ations site, provides links to the statistical agencies of countries. 0arning - if you are gathering

international data from a variety of sources, make sure that the definitions of variables are comparable. 1or example, the unemployment rate in the 7nited 'tates is defined differently from the unemployment rate in other countries. Try and find sources that have compiled cross-country statistics on your topic. They have likely already adjusted for definitional differences. $heck out the websites of the major international organiLations - the %E$* has a lot of data 4www.oecd.org, click on statistics5. The "uxembourg #ncome>Employment 'tudy 4www.lisproject.org5 is a great project that has collected survey data from a large number of countries. #f you want to do a crosscountry comparison of labour market situation at the individual level rather than the aggregate level, this might be a good place to look. The data isn8t accessible directly however, you have to submit your program to the site and they will send you back your results. MACRO TOPICS 2acro 4aggregate5 data may be a little easier to find than micro data. 'ince the data is aggregated 4i.e. unemployment rates versus whether a person was unemployed last year5 there is little concern of confidentiality which hampers a lot of the gathering of microlevel data. The downside of using aggregate data is that the number of observations that you have are typically much lower and you may have less variation. Also, note that some data used in time series are collected annually, some +uarterly, some daily. 2ake sure you are able to get consistent time periods. esources for Economists 4www.rfe.org5 is probably the best site to find aggregate data. http=>>economagic.com has many of the 7' macro economic time series data, available in Excel files. Also the $ensus 6ureau has good data on the 3;;; census. MO+E( O/ T,E ECONOMY http=>>fairmodel.econ.yale.edu> - this is a complicated model of the 7' economy, and is mostly used for forecasting. # would suggest it %&"Y if you really want to spend a "%T of time on a very interesting and worthwhile subject. Y%7 will have to do a lot of reading on your own since we do not have time to cover simultaneous e+uations in class. /IRM (E0E( +ATA This type of data is notoriously more difficult to find, for confidentiality reasons. Eowever, industry analyses make for interesting econometric papers. 1or example, one recent project looked at the effect of pharmaceutical advertisement regulation on sales. %r one could look at the impact of trade regulations or employment regulations on a certain industry. To do a project like this, # would suggest first looking at the annual reports of companies that you are interested in. #t is easier to consider an industry with few major players - ie. Automotive, fast-food restaurants, etc. Also, remember that the fewer companies that you have the more years of data you will need.

/INANCIA( +ATA 1inancial data is useful, not just for finance related topics but as a way of measuring the performance of certain industries. $areful with this type of data - a lot of it costs money. 6e sure that the data is downloadable and not just available. www.fisher.osu.edu>fin>osudata.htm - provides a search engine for financial data sources 'RO-T, O/ ECONOMIES 'ee the web site section E'%7 $E'. SPORTS #n prior years, there have been many sports papers. Although that is fine with me 4because # believe you will learn more if you have innate interest in the topic5, you 27'T have references to the economics of sports literature. #t is very permissible to find an old paper and add to its data. !erformance data is useful to address a number of economic +uestions, especially in the field of industrial organiLation. Think about it - here you have these sports teams 4firms5 that are competing against other teams 4firms5. #t is possible to clearly identify the output of individual athletes 4workers5 and how they work with others 4individual stats and stats from certain combinations of players5 and finally salary is assumed to be clearly related to performance, unlike in most other types of employment. The danger in writing a sports paper is forgetting to add any economic context whatsoever. This isn8t acceptable. $heck out the <ournal of 'ports Economics to get an idea of the types of topics that you can ask. www.iesbs.com>pdf>sportsAeconomics.pdf is an encyclopedic synopsis of sports economics, it might give you some topic ideas. There is also a sub section of www.abour.com that deals specifically with sports economics. *ATA= 6e prepared to enter a lot of data in a spreadsheet by hand. $heck league webpages. *ata of past years may also be available in the reference area of the library. http=>>www.baseball).com>c-economics.html - has data on baseball, legal situation, etc. http=>>www.sportsvenues.com> - info on stadiums and revenue