a short research paper, you’ll want to pick a topic,
perhaps inspired by Fingame. Write a 1 page proposal in which you FULLY CITE at least
four recent (last 10 years?), high quality scholarly finance or economics journal references
that you expect to use (2 points). I grade it. Then you prepare a first draft (not too rough,
2 more points). You and your classmates comment on each other’s drafts (3 points for 3
comments). Then you post the final version to be graded (8 points). I and the TA will also
comment on the draft.
Papers should be done individually, and for this class only.
Some of the very best scholarly finance journals are listed below. Full citation
means include author, title, journal, volume, number, page numbers, etc… Hyperlinks may
supplement this, but are not proper substitutes for coherent citations in the text. (I often
read these in hard copy – hyperlinks are useless for that.) Make sure your proposal is truly
readable. Because I am sometimes curious about unfamiliar sources, I may ask for copies
of some of yours. For that purpose, hard copy, pdf, or hyperlink will be acceptable.
Revised proposals may be resubmitted once as time permits. Your topic may correspond to
your career plans after graduation, omitted topics, or just curiosity. I will comment on
proposals in Blackboard, within two weeks or less. It may make sense to touch base with
me informally if you want to get an early start on the paper.
In addition, I will prepare Blackboard so that you will be able to post preliminary
‘rough’ drafts of your paper to Blackboard’s discussion space. Students will be expected to
give useful comments on at least three such papers. You are encouraged to give and get
feedback to and from classmates concerning these drafts. I, or the TA may comment on
posted drafts as time permits.
For each paper, you should carefully read and cite your sources which total a
minimum of 150-200 pages of scholarly sources. If you intend to rely heavily on unusual,
or older sources, check with me first, to make sure that they are suitable. You should do a
careful reading of your sources, culminating in a synthesis of the relevant academic journal
articles and other literature. Your efforts should result in a 2000-2500 word research
paper, making significant use of the scholarly finance journal literature, and which (with
your proposal, draft and comments) will count for 15% of the total grade. Include text,
footnotes, and a complete, annotated list of sources cited, in one document. Feel free to
come by my office to discuss ideas or rough drafts.
here to those submitted at other times or places. Your papers will be posted to SafeAssign,
which checks for overlaps with other sources. If detected, plagiarism will be punished.
SafeAssign is a type of “plagiarism prevention software”. Papers run thru it are linked to
an assessment of how much of the paper is identifiable from other sources. If these sources
are properly quoted, cited and referenced, that is fine. If not, there may be a problem.
There may be innocent reasons for such findings, but it is best to take care to ensure that
your writing is your own, and credit is given where credit is due.
To get ideas, you may want to search ECONLIT or JSTOR, or peruse recent issues
of some of the top finance and economics journals. These include: American Economic
Review, Financial Management, Financial Review, Journal of Accounting and Economics,
Journal of Economic Literature, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Journal of Finance,
Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal
of Political Economy, Review of Financial Studies, … and many, many others.
On the other hand, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Economist, Business
Week, and other newspapers or news magazines, etc. are NOT scholarly finance journals.
While you can use them, they do not count toward the “significant use of the scholarly
finance journal literature” required for the paper.
Of course, there are many other good journals. If you are unsure about a given
source, check with me early on. Be careful with your sources. Some have mixed motives.
This is often true of policy journals. Fortunately, most major scholarly finance journals
are available from the library, online, or via interlibrary loan. Regrettably, some journals
charge for online use. Such charges can be easier to get around if you plan ahead
-interlibrary loan takes time, and hard copies are not always on the shelves.