Overview of Project: This project is meant to give you experience writing a simple research paper that combines economic theory with statistical analysis while drawing on and readings from secondary/primary academic sources. You will be using what you have learned in the class. The paper should be around no fewer than 7 and no more than 8 double spaced pages (not including graphs/figures/ tables/and references).
Your job is to use one of the theories presented in this course to analyze the impact of a contemporary policy or economic event (the great recession, unemployment insurance, stimulus checks, subsidizing education) on some health outcome (life expectancy, health behaviors like smoking, mortality, self-reported health, etc). Alternatively, you can look at how changes in demographic or health behaviors impacts the economy (ex: how did the opioid epidemic impacted unemployment, how does health insurance coverage impact labor productivity).
In doing this, you should explore the relationship between a health-related outcome and the policy/event you have chosen to investigate. Finding both statistics online and incorporating recent research on your topic of interest (including research discussed in the class), you will come to a conclusion about the relationship between the policy and your outcome of interest. You will then compare the conclusion you reached to the predictions of your theory, ideally the empirical results you find shed light on the theoretical model you chose to explore.
It is fine to conclude that the theory is wrong or incomplete or conclude that the theory made a good prediction of the impact of the event/policy on heath. But you need to compare your empirical research findings to the predictions of your theory.
Begin by choosing from one of the following theories we have discussed in class:
1. Production functions and efficiency in health production (allocative and/productive)
2. The Grossman Model
3. Moral Hazard / Insurance and Demand for healthcare / health.
Your paper should begin by making clear which theory and policy/event you choose to explore and why it is important. Then motivate why this question is important and why it is relevant to the economic policy and health behaviors / health. One of the points of this project is to demonstrate what you have learned in the class: so you will be expected to connect your project to our lessons/lectures/readings.
Next, the paper should leverage economic theory to make some prediction or offer insights into the policy/event that is the topic of the paper.
You should then turn to statistics and empirical research to either support or refute the prediction made by the theory. In terms of statistics you should find reported data in a paper or on the internet that speaks to the relationship between the economic policy/event and health: this can be raw statistics and tables/graphs you create yourself, or you can use tables/graphs from a paper as long as they are appropriately cited. You should also incorporate what you have read from research articles/papers/websites/etc that provide evidence on the issue at hand. It is especially important to use information/arguments from the class material and readings when possible.
Finally, you should come to a conclusion about how the economic policy/event impacted health (or visa versa). You should compare your findings with that predicted by your theory.
You are welcome to use chat gpt or a similar Artificial Intelligence / large language model to help you with your writing. If you choose to do so you should:
• Indicate somewhere in the paper that you used AI and which one you used (a footnote is fine).
• The rules of plagiarism apply to chat gpt and other AI: you need to re-write any wording taken from the chat bot to make your own. If you do copy and paste directly from the AI you need to put the text in quotation and attribute it to the AI.
• Chat gpt is notorious for getting critical facts/details wrong. Citations it provides are typically a mess. It is your responsibility to do careful fact checking of any information it provides, and failure to do so will substantially penalize your grade.
Empirical Project Grading Rubric: The paper should have the following 4 sections (labeled) and you will be graded based on how well you execute the following:
Name(s):
I. Introduction / Overview (24 points all together)
a. It is clear what theory (from the above list) the student has chosen and how it relates to the class. 5 points
b. It is clear what policy /event is being examined and what outcome is being looked at : 5 pts
c. Attempts to motivate why the policy/event is important. To do this, it is helpful to draw on statistics and numbers that emphasize the costs/benefits of the topic to society: 7 pts
d. The student connects what they are studying to the text/what we have learned in class. 7 points
Earned:________
II. Economic Theory. (25 points all together)
a. The student draws on theory to frame the importance of their research question. 5 points
b. The student uses a theoretical model to predict the impact of the policy/event on health/the economy. Alternatively, the theory is used to shed light or inform the policy they are investigating. 10 points
c. Create your own Graphs (or equations) to illustrate the theory with comfort / ease / clarity. Again: using either graphs to illustrate the theory is an important part of the project. See how we used the grossman model in homework 2 or how the model of moral hazard makes a prediction related to dead weight loss: you should be able to similarly apply a model to make predictions about your policy of interest. 10 points
Earned:________
III. Evidence: Statistics and Sources (29 points all together)
a. The student draws on multiple secondary sources and/or academic research to lay out what is known about the policy/event from an empirical and academic perspective: 9 pts
b. The student draws on graphs or tables that show reveal some sort of statistical relationship between their policy of interest and their health outcome. 9 points
c. The student draws on material from the class/ class readings and incorporates that into their analysis. 6 points
d. The student uses a-c above to reach some sort of conclusion about the impact of the policy. 4 points
Earned:________
IV. Policy Lessons / COnclusion (17 points all together)
a. Discuss how your findings/evidence/statistics relate to the theory made in section II. Were the results surprising or different from what theory would suggest? 5 points
b. Discusses what your findings/evidence means in terms of what is learned about the policy. 5 points
c. Discusses how these findings/lessons relate to what we have learned in the lectures/readings/homeworks of the course 6 points
i. Note: this could be either that your paper’s results support a theory / empirical finding we learned about in class OR because it contradicts a theory /empirical finding we learned about. Either way, make the connection explicit.
Earned:________
Other: points 5 (+/- some)
a. No less than 7 pages, no more than 8 pages. Double spaced, length does not include graphs, tables, works cited, etc: -3 pts per page under or over.
b. Works cited clear and in order: 2 pts
c. Decent Grammar/spelling: 3 pts.
Earned:________
Notes to Student:
Places to go for Data:
We have an Internet and library full of data, but let me suggest a few specific websites that you might want to explore in your search for topics and for the necessary data.
http://www.kff.org/statedata/
http://www.statehealthfacts.org/
http://www.cdc.gov/datastatistics/http://datacenter.shadac.org
http://researchguides.library.tufts.edu/content.php?pid=49955&sid=366979
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/index.html
http://www.cerc.com/townprofiles/list.asp
http://www.census.gov/
http://www.fedstats.gov/
http://www.bls.gov/
http://www.bea.gov/
http://www.statemaster.com/index.php
http://www.econdata.net
http://einstein.library.emory.edu/econlinks.html
http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Reference-Shelf/Data.shtml