Scanned by CamScanner ECO 700 Final Project Guidelines and Rubric Overview As the final stop in your journey toward your Master of Science in Applied Economics, you will complete a final project that will allow you to demonstrate the knowledge and skills you have gained during your time at SNHU. Over the course of the term, you will immerse yourself in integrating what you have learned in your coursework and practice to create an authentic demonstration of your abilities as an economist. The final project for this course is an analysis of a contemporary economic issue relative to a business, policy, or topic of your choice based on your academic area of interest. For instance, general track students might choose industrial policy, labor economics, international trade, macroeconomic policy, or regulatory economics. For those who are in the Environmental and Natural Resources concentration, you must choose a topic relative to the field. This analysis will be followed by a presentation and professional reflection of your journey through the Applied Economics program and how you plan to position yourself professionally. Completion of the analysis, presentation, and professional reflection components will exemplify your professional identity and represent the skills and abilities you can bring to a potential employer. This capstone will be assessed somewhat differently than other courses you have taken online at SNHU. There are three separate components that will be submitted at different times during the course; however, they all operate together to make up the whole capstone experience and are not assessed separately. You will be evaluated on all three elements as a unit in determining whether you have achieved proficiency in each outcome. All components must be completed at the highest level, as the strengths of one cannot compensate for the weaknesses in another. Your instructor will guide you through this process, keeping a running narrative of your strengths and weaknesses in relation to the outcomes as you progress through the class. Your work is expected to meet the highest professional standards. Remember, you are selling yourself as much as you are selling your ideas. In this assessment, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following outcomes:  Communicate economic principles, problems, findings, and risk in effective verbal, written, visual, and graphical formats  Integrate appropriate economic theories and principles into the analysis of real-world organizational, social, and political issues  Design and execute sound research studies that effectively and appropriately incorporate quantitative data analysis, econometrics, and other key economic tools and methods  Incorporate accuracy, precision, and ethical decision making into the analysis and reporting of economic data  Evaluate the impact of a wide variety of internal and external influences on personal, professional, and government.

1. Scanned by CamScanner
ECO 700 Final Project Guidelines and Rubric
Overview
As the final stop in your journey toward your Master of Science
in Applied Economics, you will complete a final project that
will allow you to demonstrate the
knowledge and skills you have gained during your time at
SNHU. Over the course of the term, you will immerse yourself
in integrating what you have learned in
your coursework and practice to create an authentic
demonstration of your abilities as an economist. The final
project for this course is an analysis of a
contemporary economic issue relative to a business, policy, or
topic of your choice based on your academic area of interest.
For instance, general track students
might choose industrial policy, labor economics, international
trade, macroeconomic policy, or regulatory economics. For
those who are in the Environmental
and Natural Resources concentration, you must choose a topic
relative to the field. This analysis will be followed by a
presentation and professional reflection of
your journey through the Applied Economics program and how
you plan to position yourself professionally. Completion of the
analysis, presentation, and
professional reflection components will exemplify your

2. professional identity and represent the skills and abilities you
can bring to a potential employer.
This capstone will be assessed somewhat differently than other
courses you have taken online at SNHU. There are three
separate components that will be
submitted at different times during the course; however, they all
operate together to make up the whole capstone experience and
are not assessed separately.
You will be evaluated on all three elements as a unit in
determining whether you have achieved proficiency in each
outcome. All components must be completed
at the highest level, as the strengths of one cannot compensate
for the weaknesses in another. Your instructor will guide you
through this process, keeping a
running narrative of your strengths and weaknesses in relation
to the outcomes as you progress through the class. Your work is
expected to meet the highest
professional standards. Remember, you are selling yourself as
much as you are selling your ideas.
In this assessment, you will demonstrate your mastery of the
following outcomes:
risk in effective verbal, written, visual, and graphical formats
the analysis of real-world organizational, social, and political
issues
and appropriately incorporate quantitative data analysis,
econometrics, and other key
economic tools and methods

3. thical decision making
into the analysis and reporting of economic data
influences on personal, professional, and governmental decision
making
Prompt
Working individually and with feedback from peers and your
instructor, you will do the following: identify a question
concerning a current economic
phenomenon relative to a business, policy, or topic of your
choice; reformulate the question into a hypothesis or some other
form amenable to the application
of economic tools; determine available resources; apply
economic tools; come to a conclusion regarding the hypothesis;
and present a report of findings. You
will perform the steps of this analysis throughout the term,
completing various assignments, meeting deadlines, and
refining your plan. A comprehensive
presentation will complete the process, representing the skills
and abilities you bring to a potential employer.
Your instructor will be available to brainstorm ideas and act as
an advisor throughout this process. You will additionally
participate in discussion board peer-
review sessions, providing feedback to your classmates and
receiving feedback on your project.

4. Component One: Research Paper
The first of three components is the development of a
comprehensive and professional analysis that should showcase
the knowledge and skills you have gained
throughout the MS Applied Economics program. The following
sections should be included:
1. Economic Problem
Provide an overview of the economic problem and a general
research agenda to address it.
2. Research Proposal
Critique and justify the particular techniques chosen for
conducting the necessary research, providing a detailed
description of both mathematical and
statistical modeling. The proposal should include, but not be
limited to, the following:
A. Research goal(s)
B. Relevant audiences
C. Strategies and tactics employed
D. Evaluation process
E. Data needs
F. Costs associated with needed research
G. Projected timeline
This report should be submitted in a professional and visually
pleasing format. Consider your choice of fonts and your use of
images, charts, and tables.

5. 3. Research and Conclusions
A. Build upon the information from your proposal to collect
secondary data and evaluate its quality.
B. Utilizing the econometrics package employed in ECO 620
and ECO 625, interpret the statistical results and present a
conclusion of how the study
answers the original research question. Among other things,
items such as upside and downside risks to the analysis should
be reflected through
both quantitative means (such as prediction intervals) and
qualitative means (such as the impact of exogenous variables).
In addition, possible
violations of the assumptions of the classical linear mode
should be addressed.
C. What are the linkages between theory and the data results?
D. The external social and political factors as well as factors
internal to the organization should be taken into account.
E. Your conclusion should discuss how the research can be
applied to other economic problems, as well as the relationship
to individual,
governmental, and societal spheres.
F. Provide recommendations based on your analysis of the data.
Guidelines for Submission: Your submission for Component
One should include a cover page and other common elements
found in a professional economic
problem analysis. The paper should be about 25 to 30 pages in

6. length (not including the cover page and references). It is
important to note, however, that in the
real world, there are usually no page-length requirements, so
this range is a suggestion. Use your best professional judgment
regarding the length of your paper.
Place an emphasis on the quality of your work, not on the
quantity. The document should use double spacing, 12-point
Times New Roman font, and one-inch
margins. Citations should be formatted according to APA style.
Component Two: PowerPoint Presentation
Your comprehensive and professional presentation uses the
information from your economic problem analysis and should be
designed to be given before a
group of executives who may or may not have an economic
background, making it important that you include only the
essential facts that your audience needs
to know in order to understand the analysis of the economic
problem and make informed decisions. You should imagine
giving this presentation with the goal of
highlighting findings in a way that moves the audience to make
a decision. In a nutshell, you are persuading your audience to
make a decision relative to
actionable items. The following should be addressed in your
presentation:
and the situation that established the need for your research and
analysis.
well-organized and clear manner. For instance, depending on
your topic and results, you
may have recommendations that seek to mitigate or address the

7. economic problem, or you may develop recommendations,
establishing a need for
future studies.
Guidelines for Submission: For Component Two, you should use
innovative and creative methods that are reflective of your
project’s goals. Remember, it is
crucial to know your audience and tailor your message to them.
Since you will not actually deliver this presentation in person,
you must create a self-sustaining
presentation that uses audio. The presentation should adhere to
the principles of an effective presentation, and all of your
sources should be cited properly,
following APA style. There is no minimum or maximum number
of slides required. You should use your best judgment to create
a presentation of appropriate
length that will communicate the economic problem and
analysis while keeping the attention of your audience. Although
appropriate length would depend on
the situation, a general guideline ideal for business leaders
would be a maximum of 30 minutes. This time frame would
allow for a focused core message of
critical information, leaving little room for tangential materials.
Component Three: Reflection Essay
This essay is your chance to reveal and discuss your thoughts
about the process and outcomes of this project, your journey
through your master’s program, and
how you plan to position yourself professionally. Writing

8. reflectively allows you to think deeply and consciously about
your experiences. Your ability to self-
analyze in a business-appropriate manner, to address areas of
growth, and to articulate goals and plans is invaluable to
successful practice.
Thinking about the process you just completed, succinctly
address the following types of issues:
ies you learned during
your academic program to actual practices?
practical experience rather than theory?
again, what would you do differently?
violations in the analysis and reporting of the economic
problem?
one and your
academic program?
academic and/or professional life?
Guidelines for Submission: Component Three should be
submitted as a Word file with double spacing, 12-point Times
New Roman font, and one-inch margins.

9. Citations should be formatted according to APA style.
Milestones
Milestone One: Economic Problem Paper
In Module Two, you will write an overview of your hypothesis
and a proposal on how to test it. You will include an overview
of the problem, a justification,
expected benefits, a statistical technique, and a testable
hypothesis. This milestone will be graded with the Milestone
One Rubric.
Milestone Two: Research Proposal
In Module Four, you will employ feedback from the previous
modules and write a final draft of the research proposal.
Essentially, it will be an elaboration of the
economic problem paper you created for Milestone One. You
will include your research goal(s), relevant audiences and why
the research is relevant to them,
strategies and tactics employed, your evaluation process, data
needs, cost of needed research, and a timeline. This milestone
will be graded with the Milestone
Two Rubric.
Milestone Three: Data Analysis Paper
In Module Five, you will write a paper documenting how you
are conducting your analysis. You will justify the techniques
you decided to use, include a critical
examination of the data, interpret the statistical outcomes, and
address any remaining issues. This milestone will be graded
with the Milestone Three Rubric.

10. Final Project Rubric
This rubric will be applied to all three components as a whole,
and no component will be assessed on its own. The “Possible
Indicators of Success” are examples
for you and the instructor of the types of concepts to look for to
demonstrate proficiency. They are neither exhaustive nor
proscriptive and should be used as
guides for illustrating how your capstone embodies the
outcome. All five outcomes are weighted equally.
ECO-700-01: Communicate economic principles, problems,
findings, and
risk in effective verbal, written, visual, and graphical formats
Proficient
100%
Not Proficient
0%
Possible Indicators of Success
Does the capstone submission demonstrate the student’s ability
to understand and assess the economic problem from the
audience’s point of view, thus
effectively communicating the analysis of research findings in a
professional and pleasing manner?
Does the capstone submission demonstrate the student’s ability
to communicate economic principles in a clear and concise
manner to a specified audience?
Does the capstone submission demonstrate the student’s ability
to maintain technical accuracy and develop a logical flow of
ideas while conveying key

11. concepts to a non-economic audience?
Does the capstone submission demonstrate the student’s ability
to present findings that offer actionable items that either seek to
mitigate or address the
economic problem or establish a need for future studies?
Does the capstone submission demonstrate the student’s ability
to articulate findings in a way that moves the audience to make
a decision?
Does the capstone submission demonstrate the student’s ability
to convey business professionalism through written, visual, and
graphical formats?
ECO-700-02: Integrate appropriate economic theories and
principles into
the analysis of real-world organizational, social, and political
issues
Proficient
100%
Not Proficient
0%
Possible Indicators of Success
Does the capstone submission demonstrate competence in
understanding and synthesizing the linkages between theory and
data?
Does the capstone submission demonstrate competence in the
student’s ability to employ appropriate economic theories to
address the salient features of the
problem in relation to economic, social, or political

12. environments?
Does the capstone submission demonstrate the student’s ability
to use economic theory effectively by arriving at new insights
or conclusions?
Does the capstone submission demonstrate the student’s ability
to make appropriate assumptions based on research goals?
ECO-700-03: Design and execute sound research studies that
effectively
and appropriately incorporate quantitative data analysis,
econometrics,
and other key economic tools and methods
Proficient
100%
Not Proficient
0%
Possible Indicators of Success
Does the capstone submission demonstrate the student’s ability
to think creatively and employ outside-the-box thinking and
quantitative data analysis?
Does the capstone submission demonstrate the student’s ability
to properly employ econometrics, using the appropriate and
correct techniques to address the
particular question?
Does the capstone submission demonstrate the student’s ability
to critically and objectively evaluate the pros and cons of a
research technique?

13. Does the capstone submission demonstrate the student’s ability
to make valid and objective interpretations of econometric
results from a statistical and
economic perspective?
Does the capstone submission demonstrate the student’s ability
to adequately address econometric issues such as possible
violations of the assumptions of the
classical linear model?
Does the capstone submission demonstrate the student’s ability
to properly utilize economically sound mathematical tools?
Does the capstone submission demonstrate the student’s ability
to set up an econometric analysis in an attempt to address the
research question?
ECO-700-04: Incorporate accuracy, precision, and ethical
decision making
into the analysis and reporting of economic data
Proficient
100%
Not Proficient
0%
Possible Indicators of Success
Does the capstone submission demonstrate the student’s
appreciation of the strengths and weaknesses of the data used in
the research?

14. Does the capstone submission demonstrate the student’s ability
to choose data based on sound principles and logic?
Does the capstone submission demonstrate the student’s ability
to remain unbiased throughout the research?
Does the capstone submission demonstrate the student’s ability
to make ethical decisions in the analysis and reporting of
economic data?
ECO-700-05: Evaluate the impact of a wide variety of internal
and
external influences on personal, professional, and governmental
decision
making
Proficient
100%
Not Proficient
0%
Possible Indicators of Success
Does the capstone submission demonstrate the student’s ability
to draw conclusions based on and supported by research?
Does the capstone submission demonstrate the student’s ability
to perform research that is enlightened by significant internal
and external factors that have a
bearing on the issue?
Does the capstone submission demonstrate the student’s ability
to make comparisons to other economic problems based on the
results of research?

15. Does the capstone submission demonstrate the student’s ability
to address the broader societal implications of the conclusions?