Write a report with the intended reader being a busy professor of economics at another Canadian university. This intended reader understands basic econometrics, but does not teach econometrics and certainly knows nothing about Econ 452 (and would not care if they did). The professor is not reading your report to give you a grade. They’re reading it because they want to learn something from your analysis. They will be unimpressed (maybe even hostile) if you claim to have discovered something profound or deep from your brief work on the topic.
State the purpose of your analysis, including a motivation (why is it an interesting question). Two or three well-written paragraphs are acceptable. Five pages, on the other hand, is unacceptable because no busy professor will read 5 pages of introduction to a simple econometric analysis.
Describe the criteria used to create your estimation sample. Do not simply insert your Stata commands and output and don’t tell your reader what you did like a diary entry (e.g. not “Next I used the Stata generate command to transform the variable …”). Tell them your reasoning about decisions and how those decisions determined your estimation sample and specification.
Report “summary statistics” for your estimation sample. Briefly explain the patterns in the data, especially as they relate to your question. Do not go off on tangents or think “my grade will be better if I simply do everything and discuss it for pages.” A busy professor wants your report to be complete but concise.
State your econometric specification completely but succinctly. Explain how it is designed to answer the questions you pose.
Report your estimation results. Point out signficant effects, anything surprising, things that confirm results from other studies, etc.
Report your inferences: conduct your test and prediction, explain their meaning and their signficance, both economic and statistical. Discuss limitations or potential issues that the busy professor might be concerned with.
Write a brief conclusion
