Winter Research Project

AT Economics / Winter Quarter Research Project

Your task this quarter is to construct an experiment that will demonstrate something about daily economic behavior. You will work in pairs for this project.

Stage 1: Define the question you want to ask.

Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational, as well as the companion pieces The Upside of Irrationality and The Honest Truth About Dishonesty, provide examples of such initial questions: for instance, what effect does being “free” have on the attractiveness of a given item or set of items? To what extent are people’s choices about value based on “anchoring” from a popular brand or company, such as iTunes offering songs at $0.99?

An alternative approach is to create a decision scenario based on “game theory.” Examples of such economic games can be found in chapter 20 of Colander’s Micro textbook.

Stage 2: Define the method of answering your question.

You will likely approach this stage as a series of questions that you pose to classmates, or perhaps as gathering data on the choices people make when looking at a certain set of goods or services. Your project should have a quantitative element – that is, something measurable – that can be analyzed for the final draft.

Please turn in your research question and a brief (i.e. one paragraph or so) statement of your methodology by Wednesday, February 19. This part of the assignment is worth 20% of the final grade. Mr. Janus and Mr. Disantis will look over the proposals and then either give approval or ask for reworking.

Stage 3: Run the experiment.

Once your experiment has been approved, you will run it in the high school community. Be sure to establish controls and record data carefully so that your analysis is specific and well-organized.

Stage 4: Write the final draft.

The final draft should be 4-6 pages in length. You should also include a literature review in your paper concerning past experiments done or theories held on your question. For example, if you are conducing an experiment about dishonesty, you should look into past studies about dishonesty and summarize their findings. Citations for the literature review should be in Chicago-style footnotes.

The paper should have a clear thesis that addresses the results of your experiment and whether you were surprised by or expected the results. Remember that an experiment turning out differently than you thought it would is not a mark of failure. Rather it is an opportunity to assess what your experiment says about human economic behavior.

The due date for the final draft will likely be in the first week of March – we will provide a specific due date as soon as the final exam schedule is released.