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Essay Instructions: Topic: The state of housing market in China: A critial survey of the literature

GUIDELINES: ECON PROJECT
The goal of Econ project is to give each student in the course some hands-on
experience with conducting a piece of applied research on a topic in
microeconomics of his or her choosing. The student may make this choice from the
list of suggested topics (see course outline).
The project may take one of two possible forms or approaches
1. Conducting a survey of the literature on your chosen topic.
-The survey must be both critical and comprehensive, and not just descriptive and narrowly focused.
-A good survey must rely on economic reasoning, supported by suitable graphs, tables, and other relevant information
-A variety of relevant sources (books, journals, magazine articles and internet resources) must be used and listed in the bibliography section at the end ofthe essay
2. Model Estimation and/or Hypotheses Testing.
Examples of this approach to your project include (a) estimation of various types
of elasticity of demand for a group of products using either a single equation
demand function, or a Demand system (Rotterdam system or the AIDS system)
and (b) testing the validity of demand theory.
This approach will require you to (i) choose the model (demand equation) (ii)
collect relevant data for estimating the model (iii) estimate the parameters of the
model using a statistical program of your choice (iv) report and statistically
interpret the results of your estimation or testing (v) explain the economic
significance of your results .

The write-up ofyour research project should include the following sections.
a.
A tittle page, including a descriptive title, name ofthe author, and address (Economics Department) and date ofsubmission.
b.
An abstract (no more than 100 words) summarizing the study.
c.
An introductory section, describing the general nature and the objective ofthe study. It should include a description ofthe methodology used for the study
d.
Short Review ofexisting literature. This section should summarise theory of the subject and empirical findings ofprevious investigations on the subject.
e.
Model Selection, the Dataset, Estimation and the Results. This section should specify and describe the model including the expected signs ofthe coefficients, the definitions ofthe variables, data transformations, and data sources.
The results of estimation and testing relating to your project should be systematically organized and reported in the form oftables. It is expected that you will then analyze and evaluate the statistical and economic significance of your results using the appropriate goodness-of-fit statistics and diagnostic tests (R-barsquare, standard errors, t-ratios, Durbin-Watson statistics etc) and also discuss any problems of multicollinearity, serial correlation or heteroscedasticity that may arise in the process of fitting your model to the data.
f.
A section on overall conclusions ofthe study. This section should present the main findings of the investigation with respect to the objectives set out in the introduction ofthe study. It may contain suggestions for future studies on the topic.
g.
A bibliography, including complete citations of all articles and books referred to in the paper.