DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
ECON335: DISSERTATION MODULE 2019-2020
COURSE AIMS & OBJECTIVES, KEY SKILLS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES
Objectives:
To combine economic theory with applied research, data collection and statistical/econometric
methods in the analysis of an applied topic.
Key skills:
The application of economic theory, data interpretation and statistical methods in analysing business
or economic policy issues.
Desired Outcomes:
In preparing a 7,500-word dissertation students learn: the relevance of different theoretical
approaches either to public policy and/or business problems; to apply analytical methods; the
relevance of mathematical and statistical techniques; and to manipulate and present statistical data
by graphical, mathematical and econometric means.
Students are expected to:
Engage in abstract thinking by extracting the essential features of complex systems to facilitate
problem solving and decision making; engage in deductive and inductive reasoning to enhance
problem solving and decision-making skills; apply theoretical, historical and quantitative methods to
the analyses of either public policy and/or business problems; plan and manage their time effectively
in relation to deadlines whilst displaying individual initiative and enterprise; present logical
argument, analyse and interpret data and evaluate alternative perspectives on the basis of coherent
reasoning; communicate and present complex arguments in written form with clarity and
succinctness; and present, interpret and analyse information in numerical form.
COURSE STRUCTURE
Throughout the course you will be expected to liaise with your allocated supervisor for guidance. A
supervisor will be allocated to you. It is up to you to arrange such meetings as you deem necessary –
but note that staff are busy and will require notice and must limit themselves to providing advice, they
cannot do your dissertation for you. The final mark is based on 100% coursework.
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Michaelmas Term Week 1: First meeting
Informal preliminary meeting with the course convenor. It is essential that you attend so that you
appreciate what is involved in the dissertation and get some idea of what is expected of you. After
that consult the course convenor by email regarding your choice of topic and you will be allocated an
appropriate advisor.
Michaelmas Term Week 3: Lectures and Labs
Lecture on Ideas/Data Sources
Lecture on Software Packages: Stata Lab and Data
Lecture on Software Packages: Stata Lab
Lecture on Research Methods, Style and Writing
Michaelmas Term Week 4: Presentations
Each student makes a 10-minute-presentation introducing their topic and outlining their research
agenda. This will be done in two groups. You need to attend all presentations of your group. Time and
place of these meetings will be coordinated by group.
Michaelmas Term Week 9: Outline Due Friday, December 6 midday.
By Friday 12.00 midday each student submits a 2 page outline of the planned dissertation. The
overview must state the title, topic and put the research into the context of the scholarly literature by
citing at least 5 relevant scholarly articles. Empirical papers should explain the data source and
availability and discuss causality and identification.
Lent Term Week 11: Draft Due Friday, January 17 midday.
By Friday 12.00 each student submits a preliminary first draft of their dissertation so far. While
progress will vary depending on topic chosen, the draft should summarize all progress so far and
document the steps planned to finish the dissertation on time. This draft can be based on the
overview, but needs to go substantially beyond it. Students undertaking empirical work are expected
to have gotten their data by now and to have done first analyses. For example the draft could describe
the data source in detail, indicating any problems, missing data and provide summary statistics and
explanations/definitions of the variables to be examined.
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COURSE CONVENOR
Hilary Ingham
LECTURER AND TUTOR CONTACT INFORMATION
Hilary Ingham
h.ingham@lancs.ac.uk LUMS B30
Alina Spiru
a.spiru@lancs.ac.uk LUMS B44a
Office hours for Hilary & Alina will be posted on Moodle.
DISSERTATION
Word counts (7,500-word dissertation) are inclusive of all material submitted; figures, equations,
tables, footnotes and references and, where work exceeds the stated limit, NO margin will be
permitted, Markers will cease marking when the word count has been reached and any subsequent
material will not be marked.
This is an economics dissertation – not an econometric project. You can write an empirical paper or a
theoretical paper. Your paper should have an original contribution. Note however that original
contributions even in most top journals are incremental and seemingly small to outsiders. Thus in your
dissertation you should like Newton “stand on the shoulders of giants”.
The defining criterion of science is the process by which you get the result, rather than the result itself.
Thus we will not grade the result, but how you got there and the exposition thereof. Other important
components that your final mark will take into consideration are your language and style, survey and
critical appreciation of prior literature, discussion of your results, proper attribution, and citation of
other’s work.
Empirical projects may employ regression analysis, but can also use simpler methods. Contributions
can lie, for example, in the replication of prior work in the literature, or extensions and updates
thereof. Theoretical work can, for example, consist of application and modification of prior general
results to other circumstances.
The best ideas are narrow, so that you have time to pursue them in depth and at high quality. If they
are truly good, you can leave their broadening for postgraduate work (or even for others to do if you
are fortunate to get published.). The Department is not looking for extended essays.
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SUBMISSION
Due Date: 12.00 midday , Monday April 20th, 2020
Coursework must be submitted electronically through Moodle. When on Moodle you should
navigate to the relevant module page. Here you will find the electronic coursework submission box.
Note that your work will be screened using software designed to detect plagiarism. No hard copy
submission is required as the work will be marked electronically using Moodle. Do not rely upon
someone else to submit your coursework.
REFERENCING
For guidance on referencing please consult the guidance notes on the Harvard Referencing System
available at:
https://answers.lancaster.ac.uk/display/LLD/Harvard+Referencing
MARKING CRITERIA AND PENALTIES
Marking criteria can be found in the Economics Undergraduate Handbook and the general course
information paper. An electronic copy of this can be found on the ECON Part 1 and ECON Part 2
Moodle pages.
FINAL MARKING INFORMATION
The Dissertation mark is calculated at 100% for this course.
COURSE TEXT AND RECOMMENDED READING
No textbook is required. Good econometrics textbooks include:
Angrist, J. and J. Pischke: Mostly harmless econometrics
Stock, James and Mark Watson: Introduction to Econometrics
Wooldridge, Jeff: Introductory Econometrics.
Good books to improve your writing are:
Williams, Joseph M. and Gregory G. Colomb: Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace, Paperback,
Longman 4. Ed., 2010.
Deirdre N. McCloskey: Economical Writing, Paperback.
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SOFTWARE
The choice of software is yours. But you might want to use the same software your advisor or your
peers use so that you can get some help. If you replicate a paper you might want to try to do so first
using the software the original authors used.
If you are conducting empirical research then you will need to be able to use software packages. A list
of software available at Lancaster is available, make sure to click on the links, to double check whether
and how you have access rather than relying on the entry in the last column:
http://www.lancs.ac.uk/iss/software/. Timberlake.co.uk offers student versions for many other
software packages.
Excel can do simple regressions. It is useful for first assembling and looking at your data and is a
powerful tool for simulation. Check for student pricing on Microsoft Office. Knowledge of Excel is also
helpful in most jobs, including city jobs.
STATA is the software most popular with empirical economists. It can be purchased via a grad plan
(option 2) at http://www.timberlake.co.uk/Stata/index.php?id=372 . STATA might be your preferred
choice if you do nonlinear estimations such as probit and tobit (SPSS implements probit/logit as
proportions not 0/1), use large datasets, or aspire for a career in economic consultancy or academic
economics. It is also available through Apps Anywhere available through the University network.
SPSS is the default in social sciences outside economics. SPSS is good for data manipulation and the
Department has a site license so you can install it on your computer for free.
Eviews might be a good skill if you are entering the city. You can purchase a student version from
Timberlake.
All of the above software can be run through the University’s Apps Anywhere application on your
personal laptops/PCs for free as long as you are on the campus network or VPN.