I’m in a political science research methods class and I was wondering if anyone had any good ideas for a research project. Mostly I’ll just want something economic related, and if it has to do with the Fed then things are even better. I think the St Louis Fed site has a ton of information documenting most of the Fed decisions and inflation numbers and stuff over the years.
Anyway I am not used to collecting emperical data. I need a “dependent variable” and an “independent variable” and something I can find data for. I’ve had a hard time trying to come up with anything economic related because this is outside of where I usually think.
If anyone has anything interesting please tell me!
Personally this is the most boring class I have ever taken. Not the least bit of interest in it–trying to get an A doing the least amount of work.
I was thinking perhaps something along the lines of (starting out with, at least): “What is the relationship between the Federal Reserve’s rate cuts and depressions?”
Or at least something like that. I’m not sure I’m phrasing that right. I’ll turn it into a hypothesis and “prove” it or whatnot. Everything in this class makes me angry because it is a complete mathematical data-driven class. Here was the original little assignment I was supposed to complete:
1. Choose a research topic for this course. State it below in the form of a question.
2. Using the Internet, locate a source of data for your dependent variable and one independent variable. Where did you find the data? Use your textbook to help you locate sources of data.
3. Explain what the data are for your two variables. What are the values of the variables? Also, state your sample size (your N).
Remember that in this class, we focus on large N studies. It is best if you sample size is 100+ cases. You may have fewer than 100 cases if you want to study something such as the 50 states. If you have less than 100 cases, there should be a good reason for this.
Couldn’t you try measure the relation between interest rate cuts and price increases in the economy? Another topical study you could undertake is one on the relation between restricting increases in prices due to price-gouging laws and the shortages that ensue as a consequence.
Both of those are good. I think I might go with the first one. While the price-gouging\shortage one would be interesting, it will be a bit more data collecting than I care to put into this class. Good suggestion, though.
If no one comes up with a better one than interest rate cuts and price increases I will probably go with that! Thanks!
Many of us on these forums would regard econometrics and statistical analysis as being akin to the use that Deep Thought was put to in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything is numeric in Douglas Adams’ series The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. In the story, a “simple answer” to The Ultimate Question is requested from the computer Deep Thought, specially built for this purpose. It takes Deep Thought 7½ million years to compute and check the answer, which turns out to be 42. Unfortunately, The Ultimate Question itself is unknown, suggesting on a metaphoric level that it is more important to ask the right questions than to seek definite answers.
In addition to Jon’s ideas, you may care to look at the correlation between the changes in levels of taxation in developing countries and economic growth (although the measure of GDP is flawed). A harder measure may be the correlation between the changes in levels of taxation in developing countries and the levels of infant mortality.
I actually have an empirical analysis course and we’re doing an assignment similar to the one you’ve done except we have to provide more descriptive detail. I just want you and the people of this post that some of these suggestion have actually helped me with my choice for my research analysis question. Once again thanks