Managerial economics project
The Group Course Project will consist of an estimation and in-depth analysis of a demand function (or any other chosen function/topic) for one company or industry or one (or more) countries selected by the group. The team consisting of 4-5 students is expected to:
a. Either use readily made available data given in the folder titled “Ready to Use Data….” Under the BB tab “Term Project Resources” for a company, product/industry or a country (use this data and conduct regression analysis are the standard minimum expectation for grading given the time constraints). Alternatively collect relevant data and information for the firm (or industry or country) from primary sources (such as survey data or company annual reports or other publicly available secondary sources. (In the second case, see Extra-credit incentive structure in item#12 below).
b. Use regression analysis and other quantitative techniques, and economic tools to estimate a demand function (or a different function or topic) for the selected firm or industry or a country.
c. At the minimum, use the regression analysis, report and interpret the regression results, and make an assessment of estimated results related to the chosen topic, reach conclusions, and make recommendations for the chosen firm (or industry or country as the case may be) to improve the financial and economic performance and future direction of the firm (or industry or country).
d. The final report will have the following basic format:
Note: Each item below are general guidelines, and you can pick and choose any of the guidelines as you wish and to the extend you are willing and able to commit your time and efforts. The commitment of time and efforts decided by the group will depend partially on whether you want to get by just with standard grading quality or if you want to go beyond standard grading quality as discussed below. Please keep in mind that your time is very limited (only 7 weeks). For most groups, the standard minimum quality option could be best option.
i. Executive summary (or Abstract)
ii. Introduction with goals and objectives and importance of the topic and research.
iii. Background related to the company/industry/country related to the topic (if and to the extend relevant and appropriate)
iv. Review of existing literature with citations as appropriate.
v. Conduct some graphical analysis of the data to the extend relevant and possible
vi. Conduct some descriptive analysis of the data using basic Statistical concepts such as measures of central tendency, measures of variation, measures of skewness and kurtosis) to the extent possible (Optional: going beyond minimum expectation for extra credit incentive)
vii. Analytical and Empirical Frameworks with hypothesis development in light of the theory you learned on that topic (such as demand theory, cost theory, production theory, among others)
viii. Methodology: Data Set description, data sources, and estimation methods used.
ix. Analysis and reporting Estimated Results with Interpretations, and Discussions
x. Conclusions and recommendations
xi. Citation and References: Appropriate citations need to be given in the paper and a list of References must be included immediately after the conclusion section (this list must be related to and be consistent with citations used in the paper). For the format of citations and references, please see one of the published research papers of Dr. Islam given in BB titled “Dr. Islam Articles for Projects) under the tab “Term Projects and Resources).
