Learning by doing: The challenge of engaging undergraduates in economics research

ABSTRACT

This article describes strategies developed at Princeton University to foster and promote research by all undergraduate students majoring in economics. It describes core features of the undergraduate research program and provides tangible recommendations for addressing resource constraints, and for incentivizing faculty advisors and students to engage in rigorous undergraduate research.

KEYWORDS:

• Active student learning
• economics education
• undergraduate research

JEL CODES:

• A20
• A22

Notes

1. The administrative staff at the university's six residential colleges send out regular reminders of university-wide submission deadlines, and provide space and simple refreshments for students who wish to gather for crunch time writing “bootcamps.” The JIW coordinator also can notify a residential college dean if a student has missed deadlines, and the dean will follow up to check in on the student and encourage him/her to seek academic, medical, or counseling services if needed.

2. Samples of good senior theses are available at http://economics.princeton.edu/undergraduate-program/senior-independent-work/sample-theses/.

3. The full set of senior theses submitted to the Department of Economics from 1927–2016 are archived at Princeton University's Mudd Library (http://dataspace.princeton.edu/jspui/handle/88435/dsp013n203z151).

4. [1] Lachanski, M. 2016. Did Twitter mood really predict the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA)? Misadventures in big data for finance. Penn (Undergraduate) Journal of Economics 1 (2): 8–42; [2] Ma, J. 2016. Applications of machine learning in forecasting regressions: Boosting United States and Japan. Penn (Undergraduate) Journal of Economics 1 (2): 49–153.

5. [1] Babic, D. 2016. European integration as a determinant of foreign direct investment in Central and Eastern Europe, 1995–2013. Comparative Advantage: Stanford Undergraduate Economics Journal 4 (1) (Spring): 5–13; [2] Puri, S. 2016. Evaluating determinants of political legitimacy in China. Comparative Advantage: Stanford Undergraduate Economics Journal 4 (1): 60–71.

6. The graded deliverables are a prospectus due in December and a final paper due in April.

7. Examples of prize-winning senior theses can be found at http://economics.princeton.edu/undergraduate-program/senior-independent-work/senior-thesis-prizes-and-winners/.