ECON 3491/295 Internship Research Paper

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A.            Overview

The research paper should be a 10-15 page paper on an economic issue or topic related to your internship experience. It should not be a reiteration of your internship experience.  Rather, it should focus on the specific issue you choose.  The paper should be structured as a research paper, with an introduction, analysis and conclusion.  The paper should be written in research style. This means it should answer a question, or test an hypothesis. In other words, it should look at the pros and cons of an issue, and examine the empirical evidence and the positions of experts in the field. Then you should come to a balanced conclusion on the issue or question examined. Alternatively, it should provide balanced information about a specific topic. This is not an editorial in a newspaper. It is not a piece of advocacy that tries to convince the reader to take a particular side on an issue.  This is a scholarly research paper. Therefore, its style is also different than what might be appropriate for a report written for your site supervisor.  Scroll down to the bottom of the page for an example of a well written internship research paper.

B.            Paper Topic

Your topic should be related to your internship experience, but it should not be an explanation or description of that experience, or a report you did as part of your work with your site supervisor. Instead, it must be an economic issue that you encountered during your internship.  For example, someone working for a financial advisor might do a research paper on the economics of risk taking, or the capital gains tax, or the effect of macroeconomic conditions on stock market prices, or the conditions in a specific industry affecting prices of stocks of firms in that industry.  Someone working in sales might do a research paper on pricing strategies in an oligopolistic market or the economics of advertising.  You should discuss the topic with the faculty supervisor before beginning your paper.

C.            Bibliography

Your bibliography can have as many sources as you wish. You must rely primarily on sources from the scholarly academic literature (at least five of these). You can supplement these with other sources, such as newspapers, popular magazines, reports used at work, the Internet sites. HOWEVER, these other sources cannot be your primary sources.   

Here are some ways to get started looking for references:

• Go to Google™ on the web and search for your topic.  Of the many possible hits (over 2 million for the “economics of advertising”) look for those that seem to be scholarly sources, such as papers reporting research results.  You should not use “notes” you find on the internet (e.g., from a faculty web page).  Rather, look for journal articles, book chapters, or economic encyclopedia entries. 
• Search specific sources such as The Economist for articles on specific subjects.  
• The American Economic Association (AEA) has developed EconLit, a bibliography of everything published by professional economists over the last 50 years. You can use search engines to find articles and books by topic and year. First go to the UConn Libraries home page on the Internet. Go to “Databases,” then “Databases by Title,” then [E].   You can then search by key word.  Some of the references you find may be fairly technical and difficult to read, while others will be much more accessible.  In general, empirical studies will be more accessible than theoretical ones in this database. 
• You should also look for surveys on specific topics in journals such as Journal of Economic Literature, Journal of Economic Perspectives, and Journal of Economic Surveys.  (For example, you can go to Google™ and type “Journal of Economic Surveys” and then search for your topic.) 
  

After finding ten or so references that look promising, go into the stacks at the library and check them out. Some articles may also be available on-line.  The links for many economics journals are provided on the Department’s website (www.econ.uconn.edu).  Follow the link to “Economic and Financial Data, Links and Resources” and then look for the list of journals.  When looking at a source, look not only at the material in that source but also look carefully at the reference list (normally at the end of the source.)  References in one paper can lead you to other related sources and in some cases to more relevant sources. Finally, you can cull this down to the 5 plus academic sources you plan to use for your paper. This search process will also help you develop your outline for your paper.

D.            Structure of Paper (Outline)

Because this is a research paper, it should be structured accordingly, with an introduction, sections presenting your analysis and discussion, and a conclusion.  For example, if you were doing a paper on the economics of advertising, you might have the following type of structure:               

First Draft:

Please use proper methodology for citing references for quotes and data used. Kate Turabian's Guide to Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations is an excellent, easy to use guidebook to organizing papers and properly citing sources.  Another approach would be to mimic the style of a leading journal like the American Economic Review.

Use clear headings for sections and subsections. As noted above, you need to have the classic introduction, body and conclusions. The body of the paper should flow logically. Do not make your paper a series of quotes of articles one article at a time. Rather, organize information from your sources according o the logical flow of your topic and outline.

Second Draft:

I will return comments to you on your first draft within two weeks of receipt of the first draft. This second draft will be the basis for your grade in Economics 295. 

E.             Grading

This course is 1 credit and is graded on an A through F basis.

For an example of an internship research paper click here:

Internship Research Paper Example