ECO 137W - Syllabus
FINANCIAL MARKETS & THE MACROECONOMY
- online version -
Summer 2024 (Session 1)
Course Description:
In this course, students are required to write a paper on a research question related to financial markets and their interactions with the macroeconomic and political environments. Students can choose among the possible research topics that are suggested or identify their own research question independently.
Students will identify relevant data and use simple econometric techniques to find answers for their research question. They will learn how to interpret and discuss their findings in a written paper, and how to present their work in front of an audience.
Learning Objectives:
In the course, you will learn:
. to come up with “real-world” questions that can be answered using data.
. to find the most appropriate data to answer those questions.
. to analyze the data using regression analysis (how to set up a regression, how to
choose the appropriate regressors), and to interpret the results.
. to write more clearly to describe your research question, and why it matters . to communicate (both in writing and orally) your findings to an audience
. to provide feedback to other students regarding their own research papers.
To thrive in this class, you should have a good grasp of econometrics (at least being able to write down and run your own regressions, and interpret by yourself the regression results). Previous finance knowledge is not required.
Writing
This is a writing-intensive course. You will be asked to submit numerous writing
assignments: a proposal, drafts of various sections of the paper, peer comments about your fellow students’ papers, and a final paper.
You will upload your preliminary work to the Canvas course webpage and receive
comments and suggestions from us and from your peers. Each student is also required to provide feedback on other students’ works and to submit written comments on their
drafts.
I expect you to use correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Your writing is an aspect of the final paper that will be evaluated. Inaccurate or sloppy writing will severely
penalize your grade.
What separates this course from many other writing courses is that in your written work you are not simply expected to report on other papers’ findings, or survey a particular literature. Instead, you are expected to write about your own findings, obtained from
some simple empirical work (usually an OLS regression).
Course Requirements:
- Computer & Internet:
You will need to have access to a computer, tablet, or phone, with an Internet connection to study remotely this quarter. Students are expected to login to the Canvas page almost daily to check announcements about the course.
Remote learning resources are provided by DTEI and OIT at the website: https://sites.uci.edu/learnanywhere/.
- Canvas Setting and Notifications
UCI students are given a UCI gmail account, but it may not be accessible in certain counties. Therefore, it is very important that you update the Canvas settings and notifications to ensure that you still receive messages and
announcements about the course. Click on “setting” to add another email address and/or a cell phone number to receive notifications. Click on “notification” to
configure how you receive Canvas notifications.
If you need Canvas support you can send an email to [email protected].
- Textbooks:
Optional:
The Elements of Style, by W. Strunk and E.B. White (SW)
Economical Writing, 2nd Edition, by Deirdre McCloskey (McC)
To refresh your econometrics (you probably own this or a similar book already):
Stock, J., and M. Watson (any ed.). Introduction to Econometrics.
Most readings for the course will not be based on books, but they will consist of scholarly journal articles and working papers.
All readings and course slides will be posted on the course website.
Grading:
The main determinant of your grade will be the final paper that you submit at the end of
the term. You will need to submit various written drafts of the paper, at different stages of completion, starting with a proposal, then drafts of the different sections, and a final paper by the end of Finals’ week. In addition to working on your paper, you are required to provide constructive feedback on other students’ work, offering comments and
suggestions on their written drafts, and participating in the discussion forum.
Proposal & Preliminary Drafts |
25% |
Peer Comments |
25% |
Final Research Paper |
50% |
The main course requirements are described in more detail below.
1) Watch Lecture Videos
During the first weeks of the course, I will post short (15-20 min) lecture videos covering some material that is needed for the paper. The first videos will cover the syllabus, notes on writing, and some finance concepts. Later, I will go over a selection of possible topics for your paper. Given that many of you will be off campus, instruction will be entirely asynchronous (that is, lectures are not live, you can watch them at any time).
In the second half of the quarter, we will focus instead on your individual papers: you will submit draft of the different sections, and me, the TA, as well as some of your peers, will give you comments.
2) Final Research Paper
The paper should clearly identify the research question you aim to answer, why it matters, and explain what you do to answer it (what kind of data you use, what
techniques you use). Any paper should include an empirical analysis: this means that you should use the econometric techniques that you have learned in previous courses to tackle your question (usually one or more OLS regressions). You should devote a lot of effort in interpreting the results and understanding what they may depend on.
The final paper is typically 10 to 25 pages in length.
The deadline for paper submission is August 1st (by midnight, upload to Canvas).
The final paper is the single main determinant of your grade. There will be no final exam.
EViews:
The final research paper should include an empirical analysis related to a topic of your choice. The easiest way to manage your data set and run regressions is by
using EViews, a very user-friendly software package for data analysis,
econometrics, and forecasting. You may have a copy of this software from your previous econometrics (122 or 123) courses. If you don’t have EViews, no
problem: you can use any other software to run regressions (Stata, R studio, Python, or even Excel).
3) Research Proposal and Preliminary Drafts
You should decide on a research topic to work on as early as possible. I provide a list of five to ten topics to choose from, but you can also choose your own (which has to be
approved beforehand). You will be required to submit a research proposal, in which you outline the topic that you propose to research, describe what you plan to do, what kind of data you will need to find, and what results you expect to obtain (it doesn’t matter if the results you obtain at the end will be different from those you anticipated).
4) Peer Comments
The class is structured in such a way to allow each student to receive as much feedback as possible on his/her paper during the term, well before the paper deadline. Besides the proposal, each student will have to submit preliminary drafts of the different sections. We’ll go over the drafts and the suggested revisions and provide comments through
Canvas. In addition to our feedback, everyone will also receive feedback from other students through the Canvas discussion and/or through written peer comments.
5) Communication
Please use these ways to communicate with me and the TAs:
- Discussion Forum on Canvas. You should preferably post your questions in the discussion forum, instead of sending an email. Many students may have a similar question as yourself, and, in this way, they can see the answer in the forum. Other students are encouraged to post their own answers in the forum as well.
- Email. If your question is more specific and less likely to be useful for other
students.
- Zoom. You can set up Zoom meetings with either me or the course TA to discuss
the progress of your paper.
Tentative Schedule:
DATES |
TOPICS |
Readings |
|
Week 1 June 24 to June 30 |
Introduction. How to write a research paper. ‘Rules’ of good writing. Writing in economics. Review of econometric tools. How to find data to answer your research question. Finance Review: efficient market hypothesis, are stock returns predictable? Abnormal Returns. |
Syllabus! SW Links to articles and WPs on website |
|
Week 2 July 1 to July 7 |
Possible topics for final paper. Papers related to research topics. Decide a research topic/question on which to write the final paper. Write Proposal. Peer Comments. |
Links to articles and WPs on website |
|
Week 3 July 8 to 14 |
Write Data Section. Write Regression Section. Peer Comments. |
|
|
Week 4 July 15 to 21 |
Write Empirical Results Section. Write Introduction. Peer Comments. |
|
|
Week 5 July 22 to 28 |
Write Abstract. Write Conclusions. Prepare first full Draft. |
|
|
August 1st |
Deadline to submit Final Paper |
|
版权所有:编程辅导网 2021 All Rights Reserved 联系方式:QQ:99515681 微信:codinghelp 电子信箱:99515681@qq.com
免责声明:本站部分内容从网络整理而来,只供参考!如有版权问题可联系本站删除。