Description of Paper
THIS IS NOT A PURELY RESEARCH PAPER. The main point of this paper is to get students to solve some health economics problem/issue using data and their own analysis. Students will empirically and analytically examine a topic and health economics from the economics prospective. They will write a (roughly) 10-15 page paper describing an issue in health economics, their approach to analyzing it, their findings, the strengths and weaknesses of their interpretations, and why it is important for economists to understand this topic. Students may use statistical software packages such as STATA, SPSS, eviews, or Excel to analyze their data. If so, they will present tables or graphs and summaries which explain their findings. Students will follow APA formant for bibliography and paper content. Maximum credit will be awarded for application of economic principles, as learned in class and outside sources. There are two main questions to ask yourself when deciding what to write your paper on:
1. What HEALTH ECONOMICS question will I be answering? This goal of this paper is NOT to simply research a subject. Instead, you are to solve or answer some health economics problem.
2. What data will I be using to answer this question and how will I be using it? DATA must be the main force behind your analysis. Therefore, early on in the process, you want to make sure that the data is available for what you are hoping to use it for. Never assume you can find the data.
Your paper should have THREE main parts:
• A hypothesis about a health economics issue
• Background information about the topic
• Data analysis used to solve your hypothesis. This should be the main portion of your paper and the analysis needs to be your own, not a summary of what someone else said.