Seminar: Population Economics
Course content
The focus of this seminar is an empirical investigation of a well-defined research question within a topic of population economics. Examples of topics include:
- Discrimination
- Migration
- Marriage and divorce
- Fertility
- Health, aging, mortality
- Inequality in health and education
- Gender inequality
- Health behavior
- Early interventions
- Public policies
The students are expected to develop a well-defined research question, find and apply suitable data, and discuss their findings in context of the existing literature and relevant theory. Replicating (and possibly extending) an existing published article will also be an option.
In additional to the learning outcome specified in the Master curriculum the student is after completing the seminar expected to be able to:
Knowledge:
- Account for the relevant and recent literature within the chosen topic of the seminar paper.
- Discuss advantages and disadvantages of the empirical method applied in the seminar paper.
- Define under which circumstances the seminar paper and related literature identifies a casual relationship between the variables investigated.
Skills:
- Find and use relevant data sources.
- Analyze the chosen data in order to answer the chosen research question .
- Test and discuss strenghts and weaknesses of identification strategies.
- Present findings written and verbal
- Evaluate and discuss the work of other students.
Competences:
- Understand and critically assess the contributions of scientific articles in the related literature.
- Apply empirical methods (incl. data collection, identification strategy, robustness testing) to a research question in the field of population economics.
At the seminar the student is trained independently to
- identify and clarify a problem,
- seek and select relevant literatur,
- write a academic paper,
- present and discuss own paper with the other students at the
seminar.
The aim of the presentations is, that the student uses the
presentation as an opportunity to practice oral skills and to
receive feedback. The presentations is not a part of the exam and
will not be assessed.
Mandatory activities in the seminar:
- Kick-off meeting
- Finding literatur and defining the project
- Writing process of the seminar paper
- Presentation of own project and paper
- Giving constructive feedback to another student´s paper
- Actively participating in discussions at the presentations and
other meetings.
There is no weekly teaching/lecturing and the student cannot expect
guidance from the teacher. If the teacher gives a few introduction
lectures or gives the opportunity for guidance, this as well as
other expectations are clarified at the kickoff meeting.
Process:
It is strongly recommended that you think about and search for a
topic before the semester begins, as there is only a few weeks from
the kick-off meeting to the submission of the project description/
agreement paper.
The seminar project paper must be uploaded in Absalon before the
presentations, as the opponents and the other seminar participants
have to read and comment on the paper. It is important that you
upload a paper that is so finalized as possible due to the fact
that the value of feedback and comments at the presentation is
strongly associated with the skill level of the seminar paper.
After the presentations, you can with a few corrections improve the
seminar paper by including the feedback and comments emerged during
the presentations. It is NOT intended that you rewrite or begin the
writing of the full project AFTER the presentation has taken
place.
Basic references:
- Bergstrom, T. (1997): “A Survey of Theories of the Family.” In Rosenzweig and Stark, eds., Handbook of Population and Family Economics. Amsterdam: North-Holland.
- Almond, D. and J. Currie (2011). Killing me softly: The fetal origins hypothesis. Journal of Economic Perspectives 25 (3), 153–72.
- Grossman, M. (2000). The Human Capital Model. Handbook of Health Economics, 1, 347-408.
- Cutler, D., A. Lleras-Muney and T. Vogl. (2011). “Socioeconomic Status and Health: Dimensions and Mechanisms.” Oxford Handbook of Health Economics.
- Cunha, F. and J. Heckman (2007). The technology of skill formation. American Economic Review 97 (2), 31–47.
- Currie, Janet, and Maya Rossin‐Slater. "Early‐life origins of life‐cycle well‐being: Research and policy implications." Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 34.1 (2015): 208-242.
For the empirical analysis:
- Angrist, J. and J. Pischke (2009): Mostly harmless econometrics. Princeton University.
- Cameron, C. and P. Trivedi (2010): Microeconometrics using Stata. Stata Press.
- Wooldridge, J. (2002): Econometric analysis of cross section and panel data. MIT Press.
The student should have a sound knowledge of Applied Micro Econometrics from the courses Applied Econometric Policy Evaluation, Economics of Education, Family Economics or Demography.
BSc in Economics or similar
Schedule of the seminar:
• Kick-off meeting: 4 September 2020 13:15-15:00
• Extra days of introducing teaching: September 11th and 18th,
13:15-15:00
• Deadline submitting commitmentpaper: Not later than October 1st
2020, 10.00 am or decided by the supervisors.
• Deadline of pre-paper uploaded to Absalon: one week before
presentations
• Presentations/Workshops: November 19 and 20, 9:00-16:00.
All information regarding the seminar is communicated through
Absalon including venue. So it is very important that you by
yourself logon to Absalon and read the information already when you
are registered at the seminar.
Each student receives individually oral feedback on the paper and at the presentation from peers and supervisor.
The supervisor gives the students collective oral feedback and individual guidance.
For enrolled students: More information about registration, schedule, rules etc. can be found at Master (UK) and Master (DK ).
More information about seminars is available at Seminars (UK) and Seminars (DK).
Read about the study programme and curricula at MSc in Economics
- ECTS
- 7,5 ECTS
- Type of assessment
-
Written assignment, .A seminar paper in English that meets the formal requirements for written papers stated in the curriculum of the Master programme and at KUNet for seminars.
___ - Aid
- All aids allowed
for the seminar paper.
The teachers defines the aids that must be used for the presentations.
__
- Marking scale
- 7-point grading scale
- Censorship form
- External censorship
__
Criteria for exam assessment
Students are assessed on the extent to which they master the learning outcome for the seminar and can make use of the knowledge, skills and competencies listed in the learning outcomes in the Curriculum of the Master programme.
To receive the top grade, the student must with no or only a few minor weaknesses be able to demonstrate an excellent performance displaying a high level of command of all aspects of the relevant material.
- Category
- Hours
- Project work
- 186
- Seminar
- 20
- English
- 206
Kursusinformation
- Language
- English
- Course number
- AØKK08406U
- ECTS
- 7,5 ECTS
- Programme level
- Full Degree Master
- Duration
-
1 semester
- Schedulegroup
-
and venue:
Go to "Remarks".
Exam and re-sits: Go to "Exam". - Capacity
- One class of up to 20 students
- Studyboard
- Department of Economics, Study Council
Contracting department
- Department of Economics
Contracting faculty
- Faculty of Social Sciences
Course Coordinator
- Jonas Cuzulan Hirani (4-6d6f6d6b4368667271316e7831676e)
Teacher
See "Course Coordinators"
Incl. Sarah Sander: s.sander@ucl.ac.uk; sarah.sander@econ.ku.dk
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