BAEcon Accounting and Finance

This module has students bring together the various parts of Economics, Statistics and Econometrics they have learned at Manchester and apply it to a single piece of original research. ECON32212 is the second half of the Applied Economics Dissertation (following the pre-requisite ECON32211). The aim of this module is to see students carry out their applied economic research which was developed and proposed in ECON32211. As a result they will have a fuller, more holistic understanding for the material covered throughout their degree and be able to synthesize various concepts and methods learned into a single piece of original research.

By the end of this module students will:

• Be able to carry out applied economic research including preparing and analyzing data, interpreting results statistically and economically, writing up and presenting those results
• Be able to review, critically evaluate and summarize existing research and evidence
• Have developed a degree of expertise with the statistical software package Stata

Pre-Requisites: A minimum grade of 65 in ECON20110 (Econometrics) AND Co-Requisites ECON32211. Only BA ECON, BSc ECON AND BA (H) PPE can take this course.

 

This module has students bring together the various parts of Economics, Statistics and Econometrics they have learned at Manchester and apply it to a single piece of original research. ECON32212 is the second half of the Applied Economics Dissertation (following the pre-requisite ECON32211). The aim of this module is to see students carry out their applied economic research which was developed and proposed in ECON32211. As a result they will have a fuller, more holistic understanding for the material covered throughout their degree and be able to synthesize various concepts and methods learned into a single piece of original research.

By the end of this module, you will:

1. Be able to carry out applied economic research including preparing and analyzing data, interpreting results statistically and economically, writing up and presenting those results.
2. Be able to review, critically evaluate and summarize existing research and evidence.
3. Have developed a degree of expertise with the statistical software package Stata.

This module is designed to introduce students to doing research in Applied Economics. It is the second of two modules (following on from the pre-requisite ECON32211 in term 1) that make up the Applied Economics Dissertation. This module focuses on carrying out the research project developed in ECON32211 including the management, preparation and analysis of data, presenting and writing up the final dissertation. While the dissertation is student lead, the work is heavily supervised. Students will meet with their supervisor weekly to ensure progress is being sufficiently made.

Note the dissertation and its components are not analogous to essay assignments students may have done elsewhere. The dissertation is a heavily supervised piece of original research. Students are encouraged to get help, advice and guidance from anywhere they can (including but not limited to their supervisor), though the final submitted work must obviously be their own. While the work is heavily supervised, this module requires significant discipline on the students part to ensure progress is made throughout the term. "Cramming" will not work for this module.

Surgeries/Supervisory Meetings

Staring in week 4 of Term 1 the students meet with their individual supervisors during bi- weekly "surgeries". These are small group, hour-long sessions where students can update their supervisor on their progress, raise any questions or concerns they might have regarding data, software, methods etc. It also gives the supervisor the opportunity to provide feedback on how the students seem to be progressing. These can be collaborative events where students help each other as well. Note, the supervisors mark all of the assessed course work (subject to review by a second examiner).

Online resources:
http://eclr.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/index.php) have been designed to support the empirical work of students.

Students meet with their individual supervisors during weekly meetings. These are small group sessions where students can update their supervisor on their progress, raise any questions or concerns they might have regarding data, conceptual issues, methods etc. It also gives the supervisor the opportunity to provide feedback on how the students seem to be progressing.

These will be provided on Blackboard:

• "Ten simple rules for structuring papers" by Kording and Mensh.
• "Why do beginner econometricians get worked up about the wrong things?".
• "How to read and understand a scientific paper: a guide for non-scientists" by Raff.
• "How to do Empirical Economics" by Angrist et al.
• "A guide to writing in Economics" by Dudenhefer.
• "Science Isn't Broken. It's just a hell of a lot harder than we give it credit for." by Aschwanden.