1. The paper should be an empirical investigation that employs estimation methods and test procedures we develop this quarter. You should estimate some interesting economic parameters and test hypotheses about them. Your report should focus on the econometrics that you do; it does not matter whether your results are "good" or "bad."

2. You must use a cross-section data set on micro-level entities. Datasets that include variation over time (e.g., yearly observations on the same person or country) are not allowed; they often introduce challenges that we will not have time to address in this course.

3. The format of the paper is illustrated below. Please write in a concise, precise, and professional style; grammar, spelling, and style do count. Write in the active voice. When referring to published work, you should cite the source at the end of the sentence, as in (Jones, 2007). If you quote from published work, you should also identify the page from which the quote is drawn, as in (Jones, 2007: 41 - 42).

4. Write out the equation you plan to estimate using the names of the variables, e.g.:

wage = b0 + b1education + b2gender + b3age + e