Assessing the impact of research capstone preparation in the economics curriculum. Issue 3 (12th September 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: St. Clair, Priscilla Cooke; Hunnicutt, Lynn; Travis, Karen
• Is Part Of: Journal of economic education. Volume 51:Issue 3/4(2020)
• Page Start: 257
• Page End: 270
• Publication Date: 2020-09-12
• Subjects: Capstone -- curriculum -- undergraduate research; A22; Economics -- Study and teaching -- United States -- Periodicals; 330.071
• DOI: 10.1080/00220485.2020.1804506
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0022-0485

Abstract

Abstract: It is challenging for economics major programs to support an undergraduate research capstone where the goal is for all majors to complete a research project that creates new knowledge. Our program has found a way to achieve this for all of our majors in the face of resource constraints and varying student skill levels, and has done this without requiring econometrics or a research methods class or sacrificing quality. Our method includes having assignments that require students to use peer-reviewed economics journal articles in most upper-level economic elective courses. We describe our method and "capstone prep" assignment variants, and, using regression analysis on a data set of undergraduate economics majors from 2007 through 2018, find that particular assignments appear to significantly improve capstone outcomes.