040271 PS Essays in Applied Economics (BA) (2020S)

The course aims at providing students the tools to write a Bachelor Thesis in Applied Economics. This course focuses on applied topics in Macroeconomics and Labor Economics, dealing among other things with inequality, human capital accumulation, unemployment and the functioning of labor markets.

To this end, the course is divided in three sections:
1) A series of lectures will introduce topics in labor economics and macroeconomics, as well as the tools and methods necessary to write an applied thesis on these topics. Most importantly, the lectures will focus on how to formulate a research question, review the related literature and structure an essay.
2) The students will receive a reading list of papers, from which they will pick one paper of their choice. Then, they will prepare a presentation of the paper following guidelines set out in class. Finally, they will present the paper in class and the presentation will be evaluated by other students, who will give feedback on each other’s presentations.
3) The students will prepare a written sample on a topic of their choice. Then, they will present their ideas in class during a 20-40 minutes long presentation. Points 2 and 3 may intertwine depending on the number of students enrolled in the course.

Important note: it is not possible to write a Bachelor Thesis as part of this course. This course is only meant as preparation to writing a Bachelor Thesis.