Term Project and Homework Assignments
Returns to Education
ECON 4400
1 Overview
Human capital, defined as the skills, knowledge, and abilities that an individual possesses, has been a focal point of economic research in labor, development, and political economy—to name a few. Education and job training are important human capital investments, leading to higher earnings and non-pecuniary bene- fits. Your ECON 4400 project focuses on the former. You will quantify the returns to education, estimating the effect of a year of schooling on an individual’s wage. While economics has developed sound theoret- ical foundations, empirical work on the return to human capital has been at the center of considerable debate.
As part of your project, you will explore a part of that debate by replicating (approximately, I have simplified the analysis to a degree) the results of Angrist and Krueger (1990) using the 2021 American Community Survey (ACS). I chose this approach to foster critical thinking and deepen econometric knowledge. Our analysis will also draw upon Bound, Jaeger, and Baker’s (1995) critique of the instrumental variables ap- proach used in Angrist and Kreuger (1990).
Throughout the term, you will complete parts of the analysis and submit each component as a homework assignment. In doing so, I can assist with your learning of econometrics in practice. Additionally, the home- work assignments enable me to address issues with coding or analysis.
For each assignment, you need only to submit what is requested. You will include the tables created for each assignment with your term project. A homework assignment will also ask you to introduce, discuss, and explain particular sections of your term project, e.g., data, regression analysis, results, and econometric methodologies. After I return the assignment, you should edit and expand the section following the outline below, addressing any notes or needed corrections.
You will analyze the returns to education and labor force participation in a U.S. state. Refer to Table 1 to see your assigned state. To download your data file, log on to Carmen, go to Modules, scroll toward the bottom of the page, and download the state data file assigned to you.
2 Paper Requirements and Expectations
You will write a three to six page analysis (not including tables and can be longer if needed) on the returns to education (and on labor force participation) and submit it at the beginning of class on Friday, 04/19. The paper will include three tables: a table of summary statistics, labor force participation estimates, and returns to education estimates (see Sections 3.1, 3.2, and 3.3). You need to attach your do-file with the paper. If you do not submit a working do-file, you will receive, at most, half credit for this assessment.
Your do-file needs to be cleaned of any redundant or incorrect commands. The entire do-file needs to be executable. In other words, if you click the execute icon, Stata executes every command without error.
Your write-up of the analysis should follow the below general outline–the sub-items do not need to follow the stated order. At a minimum, you must address each enumerated item. Your writing needs to flow (does not read as an itemized list). Each paragraph must consist of one key idea and includes supportive statements (evidence, results, etc.) of that key idea. Additionally, you need to ensure your writing includes transitions between key ideas (paragraphs).
1. Introduction
(a) Discuss the importance and benefit of education in the context of earnings. For background, read the following papers:
• “Economic returns to education: What We Know, What We Don’t Know, and Where We Are Going–Some Brief Pointers” by Dickson and Harmon (2011)
• “Does Compulsory School Attendance Affect Schooling and Earnings” by Angrist and Krueger (1990)
• “Educational Attainment and Quarter of Birth: A Cautionary Tale of LATE” by Barua and Lang (2008)
• “Problems With Instrumental Variables Estimation When the Correlation Between the In- struments and the Endogenous Explanatory Variable is Weak” by Bound, Jaeger, and Baker (1995)
You can access the papers in the module Articles for Term Project on our Carmen course site’s Modules page.
2. Data and Methodology
(a) Cite and discuss the data used for the analysis
(b) Discuss the sub-samples used for the analysis, referencing the summary statistics
3. Labor Force Participation
(a) State the objective of using regression analysis to explain labor force participation (b) Include the labor force participation model
(c) Discuss the OLS and Logistic results
4. Returns to Education
(a) Introduce and discuss the wage equation
(b) Discuss OLS return to education
(c) Discuss why the OLS estimate for the return to education is biased
(d) Discuss Two Stage Least Squares (2SLS) estimator–how does it address the endogeneity prob- lem?
(e) Discuss the instrumental variables, including the relevancy and validity requirements (f) Discuss the 2SLS return to education
(g) Compare and discuss OLS versus 2SLS estimates. Do the result meet expectations? Explain (Hint: why is the OLS estimator of the returns to education biased?) Discuss the F-statistic from the test for weak instruments. What insights does the test provide regarding the results?
5. Discussion and Conclusion
2.1 Paper Formatting
• Font: 11pt Times New Roman font
• Margins: One-inch margins (top, bottom, left, and right)
• Line spacing: 1.5 lines
• Start of new paragraph: Indent (no additional spacing between paragraphs)
• Text Alignment: justified
• Make sure to include your first and last name on the paper
References and Citations - Chicago Style. If you choose to support an argument by drawing on the work of other scholars, you need to follow the below citation and reference style (Chicago). When you cite an article or research paper, you must include a reference section with your paper.
Citation and reference examples:
In-text citation |
Reference list |
Author Year |
First author’s last name, first author’s first name, second author’s first and last names, third author’s first and last name, . . . , and last author’s first and last name. Year of publications. “Title of article.” Title of Journal, volume number(issue/number, or date/month of publication if volume and issue are absent): page numbers (if any). |
Example - Parenthetical |
|
(Tesseur 2022) |
Tesseur, W. 2022. “Translation as inclusion? An analysis of international NGOs’ translation policy documents.” Language Problems and Language Planning, 45(3): 261–283. |
Example - Narrative |
|
Piketty and Saez (2003) |
Piketty, Thomas, and Emmanuel Saez. 2003. “Income Inequality in the United States, 1913–1998.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118(1): 1–41. |
2.2 Stata Do-File
You will generate one do-file for this project. Each assignment will have you add to your code document (do-file). You must save your do-file at each step of the project (I recommend saving it regularly when working on an assignment). Separate each part using asterisks. For example:
********************
**ECON 4400 Project: Name - Assigned State
********************
********************
**Homework 1 - Summary Statistics
. . .code here . . .
********************
********************
**Homework 2 - Labor Force Participation
. . .code here . . .
********************
********************
**Homework 3 - Returns to Education
. . .code here . . .
********************
2.3 Data Assignments
Table 1: Data Assignments for Term Project (and Homework)
Name |
State FIP |
State |
Brown, Gavin |
39 |
Ohio |
Chen, Jack |
39 |
Ohio |
Clagett, Ricky |
20 |
Kansas |
Cleveland, Isabella |
42 |
Pennsylvania |
Cozine, Emily |
9 |
Connecticut |
Dave, Vyom |
51 |
Virginia |
DeMichele, Amanda |
19 |
Iowa |
Duruji, Emmanuela |
44 |
Rhode Island |
Falter, Matt |
42 |
Pennsylvania |
Gallegos Ortega, Sofia |
36 |
New York |
Hao, Raymond |
16 |
Idaho |
Houseman, Jake |
4 |
Arizona |
Huang, Xinrui |
41 |
Oregon |
Jenkins, Brady |
5 |
Arkansas |
Kang, Seoyeong |
55 |
Wisconsin |
Korakis, Yanni |
15 |
Hawaii |
Librizzi, Jack |
32 |
Nevada |
Lou, Lorraine |
31 |
Nebraska |
Martin, Laydan |
51 |
Virginia |
Meng, Kevin |
38 |
North Dakota |
Miller, Liah |
26 |
Michigan |
More, Vaidehi |
36 |
New York |
Nagle, Margo |
12 |
Florida |
Ou, Ruhong |
44 |
Rhode Island |
Qin, Haoming |
6 |
California |
Schnabel, Erin |
25 |
Massachusetts |
Srinivasan, Visvam |
13 |
Georgia |
Ting, Jonathan |
17 |
Illinois |
Varchetti, A.J. |
24 |
Maryland |
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