The research paper should encourage you to employ economic concepts (scarcity, opportunity cost, comparative advantage, supply and demand, price signals, diminishing returns, marginal utility, competition, monopoly, labor markets, income distribution, externalities, public goods, and many others) in a practical way to a business or social issue, bridging the gap between theory and practice. The research paper should clearly incorporate the economic analysis and topics of discussion covered in both the textbook and the workshops (as they pertain to the topic of research), and students should attempt to see business and social issues through the "lens" of economic logic. The conclusions arrived at by the project team should reflect a deeper "economic way of thinking."
Divide your paper into six specific sections as follows:
- Introduction: topic, statement of problem to be discussed
- Objectives: thesis statement, what is the goal of the essay?
- Method: the research method used: case study, books and newspaper/magazine articles, personal statistical research, or previously conducted statistical surveys
- Findings and Observations: data, facts ascertained, what did you discover?
- Conclusions: interpretation, analysis of findings, arguments, personal comments and group opinions, consensus
- Documentation: works cited, reference page
- Your essay should be between 6-8 pages in length (excluding any cover pages, bibliography, works cited, or endnotes pages), typewritten, double-spaced, and in APA format.
- Sections 1, 2, and 3 (Introduction, Objectives, and Method) should not consume more than about 1-2 pages of the final draft. The bulk of the research and writing should be concentrated in the 4th and 5th sections where discussion should occur, evaluation of theories should be conducted, and conclusions may be drawn