Template for Econ 131 Course Paper

1. State your research question (e.g. Do rich families

proportionately pay more taxes than poor families?)
2. Hypothesis (Rich families proportionately pay more taxes
because income and property taxes are designed to be
progressive)
3. Analytical model (Taxes = a + b1*income + b2*region + ).
Then explain why the variables are there and what is their
expected influence on the endogenous variable.
4. Data (show summary statistics; check for outliers; zero
response; etc.)
5. Estimation issues (check for multicollinearity, heteroskedasticity,
etc.)
6. Estimation results (show various models tested and indicate
your best model) also discuss your results
7. Conclusion (answer your research quetion