Research Question: To what extent does access to education and skill development contribute to reducing income inequality? How do different levels of education affect earnings distribution?
1. Produce a full spreadsheet in Excel or Stata with all the data you intend to use in your
analysis. Cross-sectional units (typically geographic units) and/or time should be in the first column. Ths is your unit of analysis. The first row of the spreadsheet should be variable names.
2. In a separate document, include: a) a full description of each variable with the units of measure and the data source; and b) URLs for each website that you used as a data source, if the data came from a website. If you create new variables, be sure to define each variable in terms of the existing variables. (For instance, per capita banana expenditures = total banana expenditures (in thousands of 2005 dollars)/country population in 1990)
3. Explain: a) the research question; b) the analyses/comparisons you will conduct using the data; and c) how the analyses will provide evidence on the question
Instructions:
The prospectus for the senior thesis must include an introduction, literature review, and biblographic sources. In addition, the prospectus idenitifies key data sources. The introduction motivates the paper. That is, it tries to answer the question: who cares or why does this research matter? In addition, the introduction must clearly state your research question.
The literature review (often referred to as the background section) summarizes and analyzes the available literature related to your research question. The review should not simply summarize each journal article in separate paragraphs. Instead, the discussion should be thematic and your paragraphs should be clearly linked with transitions. A detailed outline of the themes in the literature review is often very helpful here. As a general rule, the prospectus should cite a minimum of 10 economic journal articles.
In developing your prospectus, you should make sure that the data is available to conduct the analyses required to answer your research question.
Make sure to incorporate comparisons across several U.S. states in the data used for the senior thesis.
Use the following 4 economic journal articles, along with 6 other economic journal articles and other sources.
- Chetty, Hendren, & Katz’s 2017 article “The Effect of Education on Earnings Inequality: Evidence from the United States” In this essay, the link between education & income inequality is investigated using data from the United States. According to the authors, education significantly reduces wages disparity, & it has a greater impact on children from low-income homes. https://www.nber.org/papers/w23551
- Hanushek & Woessmann’s 2008 study “The Role of Education in Reducing Income Inequality: A Cross-Country Analysis” The link between education & income inequality is investigated in this research using data from 27 different nations. According to the authors, nations with more fair educational systems see a higher reduction in economic inequality as a result of schooling. https://www.nber.org/papers/w13729
- Author Card published “The Returns to Education: Evidence from Quasi-Experiments” in 1999. The returns to education are examined in this research using data from natural experiments. According to the author, there are significant benefits to education, & those benefits are especially greater for kids from low-income homes. https://www.nber.org/papers/w6626
- Acemoglu & Autor’s 2011 article “Education & Inequality: The Role of Skills” In this essay, the role of skills in addressing income inequality is examined. The authors discover that while the need for skilled labour has grown in recent years, income disparity has also grown. https://www.nber.org/papers/w16523
Here are some additional data sources that can be used to collect data for the thesis:
Economic and Business Data:
Economic Report of the President (http://www.gpoaccess.gov/eop/index.html)
WebEc Economics Data (http://www.helsinki.fi/WebEc/webecc8d.html)
(One of the best and complete economics data links including data on both international
and domestic data categorized by area and country)
The U.S. Census Bureau (http://www.census.gov/)
Current Population Survey (http://www.census.gov/cps/)
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (http://bea.doc.gov/)
Bureau of Labor Statistics (http://stats.bls.gov/)
Resources for Economists (http://www.rfe.org/)
Federal Reserve Data (http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/)
Economic Report of the President (http://www.gpoaccess.gov/eop/index.html)
WebEc Economics Data (http://www.helsinki.fi/WebEc/webecc8d.html)
(One of the best and complete economics data links including data on both international
and domestic data categorized by area and country)
The U.S. Census Bureau (http://www.census.gov/)
Current Population Survey (http://www.census.gov/cps/)
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (http://bea.doc.gov/)
Bureau of Labor Statistics (http://stats.bls.gov/)
Resources for Economists (http://www.rfe.org/)
Federal Reserve Data (http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/)
NBER Macro History Database
(http://www.nber.org/databases/macrohistory/contents/index.html)
International data:
Nation Master (http://www.nationmaster.com)
Asian Historical Statistics Project (http://www.ier.hit-u.ac.jp/COE/)
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (http://www.oecd.org/)
Gap Minder (http://www.gapminder.org)
Global Youth Tobacco Survey (http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/GYTSDataSets/viewmap.aspx)
China Macroeconomic Variables
(http://www.ier.hit-u.ac.jp/COE/Japanese/online_data/china/)
International Happiness (http://worlddatabaseofhappiness.eur.nl/)
International Health and Education (www.worldbank.org)
(http://www.nber.org/databases/macrohistory/contents/index.html)
International data:
Nation Master (http://www.nationmaster.com)
Asian Historical Statistics Project (http://www.ier.hit-u.ac.jp/COE/)
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (http://www.oecd.org/)
Gap Minder (http://www.gapminder.org)
Global Youth Tobacco Survey (http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/GYTSDataSets/viewmap.aspx)
China Macroeconomic Variables
(http://www.ier.hit-u.ac.jp/COE/Japanese/online_data/china/)
International Happiness (http://worlddatabaseofhappiness.eur.nl/)
International Health and Education (www.worldbank.org)
Health and Environment Data:
Health, United States (Center for Disease Control and Prevention),
(http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus.htm)
Environmental Protection Agency (http://www.epa.gov/airmarkets/)
CDC Smoking & Tobacco Use (http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/statesystem/Default/Default.aspx)
CDC Youth Online (http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/yrbss/index.asp)
Individual-level data:
Panel Study of Income Dynamics ( http://psidonline.isr.umich.edu/ )
DataFerrett (http://dataferrett.census.gov/)
State-level data:
State Master (http://www.statemaster.com)
Quick Facts State and County level (http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/download_data.html)
Other websites used by students
Computer component prices (http://www.pricewatch.com/)
Corporate market value, fundamentals, stock returns, etc. (www.yahoo.com)
Crime rates (http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/)
Index of economic freedom (http://www.heritage.org/index/)
Magazine revenue and advertising (http://worlddatabaseofhappiness.eur.nl/)
Movie revenue and budget (http://www.imdb.com/)
Brewers Almanac (http://www.beerinstitute.org/statistics.asp?bid=200)