Inflation

Project description
2. Writing a literature review

This assignment has three components. First, you must define your own research topic. Then you must find scholarly work on that topic. Finally, you will review three contributions to the literature. This process – think of a problem and critically evaluate how others have tackled similar issues and their findings – is essential for any research project. Moreover, it should become central to your strategy for completing assessments if you aspire to do more than summarize textbooks.

Creativity is vital to research. You may research any topic you wish. It is advantageous to research topics that you believe might be beneficial on other courses, but the choice is yours. You will review three articles. The selection of these three articles should follow a comprehensive literature search. The main body of the review should focus on comparing and contrasting the development of the four research frameworks within the selected papers, before synthesising an approach that could be developed as an independent research project.

2.1. The type of literature

Your goal in this assignment is to review three examples of applied economics research on your chosen topic. For simplicity, our definition of applied empirical economics refers to studies that conform to the research process outlined in classes (see the flow chart at www.bcps.org/offices/lis/researchcourse/develop_writing_method_qualitative.html). Research that involves the design of methodological and analytical frameworks is conceptually and qualitatively distinct from research that does not explicitly test research propositions. Particular care should be taken in distinguishing between applied economics research and papers that simply present graphs and tables without recourse to a methodological or analytical framework.

2.2. Searching and search criteria

You are asked to review three papers. A high quality review is one that identifies a range of papers on a subject, and that applies objective criteria to identify those that represent a tight cluster of papers that cumulatively will enable the reviewer to commence their own research design. We strongly advise that you set your net such that your initial search identifies more than three papers, that you complement Google with Library database resources, and that you identify objective criteria when making the final choice between papers.
3. Guidelines for the literature review

Please adhere to the following requirements.

• Review no more than three articles. This is non-negotiable, since it normalises constitutes a level playing field for all submissions. Do not cite any other publications.
• Include a separate title page giving the unit name and title, your student number, and an appropriate title.
• Include a running header or footer that includes your student number.
• Paginate the document.
• Use 12-point font with 1.5 line spacing throughout.
• Do not exceed 3,500 words for the review, excluding footnotes or endnotes and bibliography. This is an absolute limit, not a guide: there is no ‘extra’ ten percent. Include a word count at the end of the review.
• Use Harvard APA 6 for citations and references. There is an excellent Library guide. Our Business School Study Support Tutors in Richmond can help you make sure your references are correct. You can find numerous online reference generators and free referencing apps for various platforms – our Tutors have details of the referencing app EasyBib on their Moodle site: . Many other free apps help with referencing.
• Begin bibliographic references on a separate page.
• Present bibliographic references using a hanging indent paragraph style (see: ; http://njbblog.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/microsoft-word-2010-hanging-indent.html).
• Do not include diagrams, tables, or equations in your literature review.
• Use explanatory footnotes within reason, but not for citation.

While these requirements are mostly straightforward, the prohibition on using diagrams, tables, or equations may be less so. Diagrams and tables do not have a place in a review, since they are essentially descriptive. Your review examines how authors have devised conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and analytical frameworks to examine particular phenomena: it does not have to explain the phenomenon itself. Prohibiting algebraic representation may seem counter-intuitive, as economists typically present their ideas this way. The purpose of this assignment is to evaluate how well you have understood the research design of a sample of papers. Reproducing another author’s equation tells us little about your understanding. Putting ideas into your own words is not easy, but allows us to gauge your understanding far more accurately and give you useful feedback. This prohibition is only for this assessment.
Use journals not books . Journal should be reliable.

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