Military Spending

Military Spending Order Description   Government and the Economy Class / The Final Paper Assignment For this assignment you are required to write a research paper that examines a government program or expenditure category of your choice.1 This is your opportunity to take a social program or form of spending that you are really fired up about so that you can run with it. The paper counts for 30% of the course grade. A. Some basic guidelines 1. Your final paper should be 10+ pages long. 2. Please make sure you number your pages. 3. Your paper must include at least 1 economic diagram and at least 1 data analysis graph. You must make/draw your diagram and your data-analysis graph yourself.2 Please place the diagram and the data analysis graph on a separate page at the end of the paper (a separate page for each one). ?For the econ theory diagram, you probably want to draw it in Powerpoint and then just print out the Powerpoint slide. That way it will not look like you copy & pasted from somewhere on the internet. (You also can draw it by hand if you prefer to do such.) ?For the data analysis graph, you can just print the relevant page directly from Excel. 4. Your paper must include a list of references. This works cited list (or bibliography or references list) should be placed on its own separate page. 5. Your paper should be typed and double-spaced, and you should use a reasonable font size (12 point). 6. Please use 1 inch margins for top/bottom and left/right. 7. Please include a cover page. (This does not count toward the page total.) 8. You must use at least 4 scholarly journal articles as sources for your paper. 9. Overall, you must include at least 12 sources on your list of references. 10. Please use APA style for the in-text documentation and the list of references. 11. Since this is a long paper, you may find it advantageous to break the paper up into sections with informative section headings. The APA style guide contains tips on how to do such. B. Your goals for your paper ?Your paper should discuss the program (or expenditure category) that you have chosen to analyze, and any controversies related to its existence or its funding. Here you might consider issues such as the following: (i) whom the program is designed to serve, (ii) how economists view or depict the program, (iii) the historical origins of the program, (iv) which government agency administers the program, (v) whether the program involves both state- and federal-level administration, (vi) what the budgetary implications of the program are, (vii) the nature of the philosophical or moral debates surrounding the program (if there are any), and (viii) what the optimal program would look 1 By program I mean a program like the Unemployment Insurance Program (for example). By spending category, I mean something like defense spending, education spending, or price supports for farmers (for example). Because we also know that it's appropriate to think about certain tax deductions as a form of spending, one could also opt to write about one of the major "tax expenditures," like the mortgage interest rate deduction. 2 In rare instances, it may be appropriate for a student to display his or her data in table format, rather than using a graph. Please see me in advance if you think this situation applies to you. like from your perspective (that is to say, if you could re-design the program, how would you want to change it, if at all). ? Students who are interested in central banking may write about the Federal Reserve instead of a government spending category. Additionally, if you are from somewhere other than the United States, you are welcome to compare and contrast your country's experience with central banking to the US case. ?Your paper needs a well-defined thesis statement or research question. ?Your paper needs to include some discussion of economic theory, with an accompanying diagram. ?Your paper should be one that taps into the intersection between economics and another discipline, such as history, law, political science, or philosophy. That is to say, you should try to approach your topic from a multidisciplinary perspective. ?Your paper should provide some independent data analysis.3 (Translation: Get some data and graph it!!) ?You should try to think about how your work might be relevant for policymakers. Every good social science researcher can do this. ?Your paper should strive to provide an objective analysis and balanced discussion of your chosen topic. This assignment is meant to produce a scholarly research paper. So remember that you are not writing an Op-Ed piece. ?You should avoid using the word "I" in your paper for this assignment since the paper that you produce is meant to be a formal research paper. ?In the social sciences it is common to break one's paper up into sections and to include informative headings for your sections and sub-sections. You, too, might want to think about doing such. C. Identifying sources ?You are writing a college-level, social sciences-oriented research paper for this assignment. That means you're expected to do library research in order to complete it. You'll want high-quality sources if you want to pass the assignment; and, in college, high-quality means peer-reviewed sources. ?Remember that to identify scholarly journals you can use library databases such as JSTOR and HEINONLINE's index to legal periodicals. You probably learned about these databases in your First-Year Research Seminar. You also might want to try using Econlit since our class is econ-related.4 ?If you insist on using one or two internet sources for your paper, you should be careful in selecting those sites. The internet is full of lies and it is often is hard to judge the credibility of random websites. Additionally, please refrain from using Wikipedia, Investopedia and random blogs as sources for your work. (You want your paper to rely on scholarly sources.) ?The above comments about the internet notwithstanding, you definitely can use policy reports from government agencies such as the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the Department of Defense, the Department of 3 Your data must come from a reliable source, such as a government agency or one of the reputable think tanks that we have discussed in class. If you think you will need an exception to this rule about data sources, make sure to speak with me. 4 Remember that the reason that college professors like students to rely on scholarly journal articles and books as sources is because these types of sources get subject to peer review. That means that a number of experts will have reviewed the author's work prior to publication. Government reports and the reports of reputable think tanks are typically subjected to a similar process. Education, or reports from Congressional committees. For the former, it is often best to go directly to the government agency site to look for reports. For the latter, you can go to the website for the US Congress. Alternatively, you might try <www.thomas.gov> to identify government sources. ?You also may want to consult policy reports from reputable think tanks, such as the Urban Institute and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP). For the conservative folks in the class, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) would be an acceptable source, along with some of the reports that the Heritage Foundation produces (although the AEI is better than the Heritage Foundation). ?You should not be using newspaper articles as sources. That is not how one writes a college-level scholarly paper. ?For data sources, in addition to the different sources that we have worked with in class for our in-class data exercises, you should know that the US Statistical Abstract is also an excellent source for data. It is available at <www.census.gov>. (Scroll down to the bottom of the page and look under the list of "special topics" to find it.) The US Statistical Abstract contains data on virtually every single feature of American life that you can think of. Plus, it has a great index. Other notes 1. Prof. Chiteji will check in with everyone after Thanksgiving break to find out what you are planning to write about. That way I'll be able to help anyone who needs help identifying an appropriate diagram for his or her analysis. 2. Each student is required to give a short, 10-12 minute presentation discussing his/her research question (or thesis statement) and the economic theory diagram that he/she expects to incorporate in his/her paper. This gives you an opportunity to "workshop" your paper so that you can get feedback from your classmates. P.S. I already gave my presentation   Topic: Military Spendings Why does US spend so much on its military? ARMY Structure Brief History MICRO ECON externalities graph effect of military spendings on the economy employment of 1.5 million? How does US spend so much on its military? -salaries -research -outsource? -what else