Grade:

To receive graduate credit for this course, significant additional work is required. In general, graduate students must take the exams, do the homework, and write a research paper. However, this may vary according to the background of the student, and any deviation from the expectations listed here must be negotiated with the professor by the beginning of the second week.  For graduate students with an adequate background in economics, for example, exams and homework can be more quantitative so that the student can demonstrate mastery of the models and theory of international trade and finance, and this may affect the size expectation and the weight given to the research paper.

Normally, graduate student grades will depend on:

Group homework (totaling 25%), with peer evaluations.

Midterm examination (20%), including an in-class exam taken also by undergraduates, and a take-home component for graduate students only.

Final examination (25%), including both an in-class exam taken also by undergraduates, and a take-home component for graduate students only.

Quizzes (not graded) - graduate students may take take the quizzes for feedback, not for credit.

Country studies -- not required.  

Research Paper (totaling 30%).

This research paper is worth 30% of your grade. It will be graded in four parts, as follows, and you must complete each part in order. 

Your research paper must focus on some current aspect of the international monetary relations and the explanatory power of international economic theory. Your paper is expected to combine a review of relevant existing theory with actual data and an application to a current issue. For example, a paper on the expansion of the Euro would need to review the political history of the Euro, consider current problems, use Mundell's Optimum Currency Theory (among others) to explain behavior or make predictions, look at how the predictions fit available data, and somehow tie it all together.  It is important to have a refutable hypothesis, and look for evidence to fit or contradict the hypothesis in the experience of particular countries.

You will be given a preliminary grade on each of the steps, and lateness will reduce the grade.  These steps will affect the final paper grade, but only the final draft of the research paper will count.  

I. Paper Topic and Initial References  

Due Date:  4th week of class.

Topic Statement:

You must complete a proposal for a paper, which also includes a preliminary review of some research on the subject in economic journals. 

Format:

The topic proposal, like the paper, must be typed, neat and professional. The proposal should be one page long, but you may extend it to two pages if necessary. Be concise!

References:

You must attach a list of initial references to your topic statement, to show what you plan to read and what information you have found so far on your topic. It is important not to pick a topic for which our library has no material.  The format for your initial list of references is given in Part II of this assignment.

Rely primarily on books, articles in professional and business journals, and articles in academic publications.  Minimize your reliance on unpublished internet sources; though these sources can be more current, they do not go through any review or editing process to determine whether their arguments are valid or substantiated by evidence.

If you are unfamiliar with these library sources, start at the Knowledge Center's website.  The Articles and Websites link will take you to search engines you can use with a UNR account (Econlit is the best one for economics), and the library has online subscriptions to many, many journals.

Appointment:

After you turn this proposal in to me, you will have to make an appointment to visit my office to discuss the paper with me.

II.  Thesis Statement, Outline, and Expanded Bibliography

Due Date:  8th week of class.

Thesis Statement:

This is a one paragraph summation of your revised proposal; it should state a clear hypothesis, and summarize whether the evidence (so far) supports it or not.  This should begin with a statement like, "In this paper, I intend to show that foreign direct investment has had a dramatic effect on China's economic growth," not something like "In this paper I will describe China's foreign investment."  An hypothesis is a clear statement derived from or supporting a body of theory, and it must be refutable (i.e., capable of being disproved).  To be generally accepted, an hypothesis must be supported with an objective reading of the evidence.  Our understanding advances when we disprove a generally accepted hypothesis, and then advance a new one that fits the evidence better.  Thus, there is nothing wrong with disproving an hypothesis, as long as the hypothesis is not just a straw man.

In your final paper, your thesis statement should be somewhere clearly stated in your introduction, and it affects the writing of the entire paper since the stated purpose of the paper is to describe evidence supporting (or contradicting) your thesis statement.

Outline Format:

I assume that you have done outlines before.  It is organized in levels, with Roman numerals (I, II, III, ...) at the top, then capital letters (A, B, C, ...), then numbers (1, 2, 3, ...), then lower case letters in parentheses ((a), (b), (c), ...), then lower-case roman numerals ((i), (ii), (iii), ...) if you get this far down.  Outlines often go down to the paragraph level, but not below.  Remember, in an outline there is no A without a B, no 1 without a 2, et cetera.  If you have more than seven separate parts to a level (e.g., in Section III you have A through K) then you may need to think about reorganizing your paper.

Part I is the introduction, in which you both try to interest the reader in your paper and explain what is coming and how it is organized.  In part II on, you should begin to make your argument.  If possible, your argument should have an historical component, and you might consider using relevant economic theory to explain what you are finding.  Make an argument based on collected evidence, rather than just using the paper to describe the situation.  Your last part is a conclusion, which both tells the reader what you did and what your results mean.  Give enough detail in the lower levels of your outline (A., 1, (a), (i)) so I know how you plan to go about showing what you want to show.

Note that while your actual paper will follow the organization of your outline, you will not use the numbering system in your actual paper except at the level of the section headings or, sometimes, the first level of subheadings.

Bibliography Format:

Your bibliography is a list of outside sources that you either have read or will read that are relevant to your topic, and you can tell how many is appropriate by looking at the references of other academic articles (a page, perhaps?).  At this stage, this may contain references that you eventually decide not to cite, and of course you may add new references as you find them.  Include assigned texts if you use them, and try to use books, scholarly articles, and even stories in the press where possible and relevant.  I am looking for the quantity, quality, and relevance of your outside readings.

You should list your sources alphabetically and unnumbered, using APA Style. Here are seven sample references, for (1) a book, (2) an article in an edited book, (3) an article in a journal, (4) multiple authors, (5) a newpaper article where no author name is listed, (6) institutional author, and (7) an internet source where the print version is not available. The titles of books and journals are capitalized and underlined (you may use italics instead of underlines if you wish), while article titles are in quotes and only use capitalization for initial words and proper nouns.

Olson, Mancur (2000), Power and Prosperity (Basic Books).

Cargill, Thomas F., & Elliott Parker (2003), "Japanese economic structures and finance:  Characteristics and causes of the current slowdown," in Structural Foundations of International Finance, edited by P.C. Padoan, P.  Brenton, & G. Boyd: chapter 9 (Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc.).

Parker, Elliott (1995), "Shadow factor price convergence and the response of Chinese state-owned construction enterprises to reform," Journal of Comparative Economics 21(1): 54-81.

Banks, Dwayne, Elliott Parker, & Jeanne Wendel (2001), "Strategic interaction among hospitals and nursing facilities:  The efficiency effects of payment systems and vertical integration," Health Economics 10(2): 119-134.

Economist (1997), "Banking in emerging markets" (April 12): 34-37.

World Bank (1993), The East Asian Miracle: Economic Growth and Public Policy (New York, NY: Oxford University Press).

IMF (International Monetary Fund, 2001), International Capital Markets: Developments, Prospects, and Key Policy Issues <http://www.imf.org/ external/ pubs/ ft/ icm/ 2001/ 01/ eng/ index.htm>.

You may use italics if you wish instead of underlines for journal or book titles.  Note that the spaces in the internet source's URL are to help make cleaner line breaks.

Paper Expectations:

I grade on your research, your explanation of your hypothesis and the background theory, your paper's format  (i.e., how well you can follow the above instructions), your paper's organization, the quality of your writing, and the quality of your content as it applies to the topic.

I expect that you have written papers before, and know how to write a good research paper.  Your paper will be graded for grammar, spelling, clarity, and flow as well as accuracy and originality of content.  Have somebody read it over for typographical errors and things that just don't make sense.   I prefer that you write this paper in a professional tone, and avoid being flippant.  Originality matters, but it is an issue of content, not creative style.  Don't write things that you can't support with evidence.

A good paper will be interesting and original, well-organized and well-written.  It will fit the assigned topic.  It will follow the assigned format as closely as possible, and will also demonstrate that the writer has a good grasp on the material.  A good paper will be analytical, will back up potentially controversial or unusual statements with evidence, and will make a solid case.  Never say a cop-out statement like “I think that...,” since your opinions are either irrelevant (if not backed up by evidence or logical argument) or implied by the fact that you wrote the paper.

This is NOT an Opinion Paper! As much as possible, you are expected to base your paper on material you have studied for this class, and not base it on opinions that you had coming into this class.  Am I repeating myself on this one?

Academic Dishonesty:

The university has a strict policy against academic dishonesty, and this includes plagiarism.  I strongly support this policy. Write with your own words, and if you need to use more than a few words from somebody else you must quote them and cite your source.  When you are using somebody else's ideas and information, you must still cite them even if you have used your own words.  The standards for graduate students are high.  

To help prevent plagiarism, I will run your paper through plagiarism-checking software.  You are required to turn in both a paper hardcopy of your paper, along with an electronic (Word) copy. I will check that the file and the paper are exact matches.  

Every semester I catch somebody cheating.  At a minimum, I will fail you on the assignment, and if the plagiarism is blatant I will fail you in the course.  I will also report the matter to the Office of Student Judicial Affairs, and graduate students are likely to be expelled from the university.  It has happened to one of my graduate students before.  Also, academic dishonesty makes you ineligible for future scholarships.

I am reasonable, as long as you are making a good effort at citing your sources, and a mere phrase here and there will not necessarily set off alarm bells.  You don't have to go overboard and cite the same source over and over within the same paragraph, as long as it is apparent that you are giving appropriate credit where credit is due.  But lifting somebody else's work, using their words or stealing their ideas without proper attribution, is plagiarism.  Getting material off the internet, copying sentences out of a book without using quotation marks, or even buying a paper from a "research service" is dangerous and stupid.  It is better that you drop out of school now to save us all the trouble.

Back Up!

Every semester somebody forgets to back up their document, and they lose it the night before it is due when a virus hits them or their computer crashes. I don't know how, but your computer seems to know when you are stressed. Make a second copy on a CD or flash drive, for security.

Length and Format:

Your paper should be approximately 20 pages long, more or less, not counting the cover page with abstract, the references, or any figures and tables.  This paper must be typewritten and double-spaced, with one-inch margins all around the text, and I prefer normal fonts of 10-12 points.  It is silly to play with the margins or the fonts just to make it fit the 20-page target.

Your paper should have a cover page that has your name, my class, the date, the title, and a one-paragraph abstract that summarizes your paper.  You should have an introduction that begins on page 1, and a conclusion at the end.  Use section headings to clarify your paper's organization.  Put page numbers at the bottom, but do not number the cover page, abstract, or end notes if you use them.  Also, any figures or tables should each be put on their own separate, unnumbered page at the back of the paper, and they should be referred to in the text as Figure 1 or Table 4, for example.

I have pet peeves you should know about. Some are careless errors, and some are issues of preference:

• "It's" means "it is," while "its" is possessive.  
• "Lose" is a verb (pronounced like "looze"), while "loose" is an adjective (with a "s" sound, not a "z").
• "Boarder" is somebody who rents a room in your house, not a boundary between countries.
• Paragraphs need to hold together, not be too long or too short (i.e, more than a sentence, less than a page).  The first sentence should give the reader some clue of what the paragraph is about. 
• Vary your sentences a little for more interesting reading. 
• Your paper should not ramble, and should make logical sense. 
• Learn to use colons and semicolons properly. For example, a semicolon separates two stand-alone sentences making a similar point.  
• In the U.S., commas and periods go within the ending quote mark (though not if there is a citation at the end of the sentence). 
• Don't quote unless the quote is just too good to pass up; instead, learn to paraphrase. 
• All sentences must have, at minimum, a subject and a verb.  
• The abbreviation e.g. means "for example," while i.e. means "in other words."
• "et al." is an abbreviation for "et alia," which means "and others."  It needs a period like all abbreviations.
• I don't like too many exclamation points! 

Use the College Handbook or similar source for a style guide.  I like papers that try to be professional and objective, and I suggest you avoid being flip, funny or sarcastic as much as possible.

Citing References:

This is a research paper.  You must use outside research in addition to the relevant assigned readings, and you must cite your research in the text.  All citations must be listed alphabetically  in a bibliographic section entitled “References.”  All sources in your references must be cited somewhere in the text.

When you cite your references, put the name(s), the year after a comma, and the page number(s) if appropriate after a colon, all in parentheses.  For example, the seven references listed in the previous section would be cited in the text as (Olson, 2000); (Cargill & Parker, 2002); (Parker, 1995); (Banks, Parker, & Wendel, 2001); (Economist, 1997); (World Bank, 1993); and (IMF, 2001). A citation generally goes at the end of the sentence or phrase, before the ending punctuation, as in:

Schumpeter emphasized the role of entrepreneurship in driving economic development (Gregory & Stuart, 1995: 66).

If you quote and then cite, the end-quote marks go before the citation, which goes before the ending punctuation.  If you are citing the source of a quote, and your citation is at the end of the sentence, then the ending quotation marks go before the citation, if in:

"In fact, in any society with autocratic governments, an autocrat with the same incentives as a roving bandit is bound to appear sooner or later" (Olson, 2000: 27).

Though I would probably paraphrase this, or rephrase this as:

Olson (2000: 27) argues that, "in any society with autocratic governments, an autocrat with the same incentives as a roving bandit is bound to appear sooner or later."

If you already mention the author in the text there is no need to repeat the citation again, as in:

Hayek (1945) argued that prices served to convey information.

You should use full names for historical figures, but only last names for your research sources.

Don't forget to give page numbers for a quote or something from a book, e.g., (Olson, 2000: 68-69).  For sources with more than two authors, cite all authors the first time and then later use et al. (this is an abbreviation for et alia, Latin for "and others").  For example, source #4 above would be cited after the first time as (Banks, et al., 1994), though if there are more than three authors you can use et al. the first time.  If you are citing two sources with the exact same author(s) and year, then both cite and reference them with the year plus a, b, c, ..., e.g., Parker (1995a) and Parker (1995b). 

It is not necessary to cite the same source excessively, especially if it is clear that it is a continuation of the same argument.  Use endnotes to explain points in more detail if necessary, but not to cite sources, and include these in a section at the end entitled “Notes”.  I encourage you to cite relevant material from the assigned texts.  Finally, you should use quotes sparingly, instead paraphrasing where possible then citing the source of the idea.  Extended quotes (i.e., a paragraph) should be single-spaced and indented, and quote marks are thus redundant.

IV. Final Draft

Your final draft is due on the last day of class.  It must address my comments and corrections on the first draft. All late papers will be penalized. If the paper will be more than one week late, you need to meet with me to discuss the possibility of an incomplete.