ECO395K The Economics of Auctions

Fall 2021
The University of Texas at Austin

Prof. Jorge Balat

BRB 3.134B
jbalat@utexas.edu

Rules and Suggestions for the Term Paper

This class has a term paper requirement. This document summarizes some basic rules and
suggestions for the term paper.

1 General Rules
• You are free to choose any topic you like as long as it is related to auctions. This
means, in particular, that you can pick a topic that was not covered in the lectures.
See Section 2 for more details.
• Important dates:
October 21 Submit a short description (one or two paragraphs) of the
topic you have selected. This will let me provide you with
some feedback
November 18 Submit a progress report briefly summarizing the research you
have been doing
December 11 The final version of the paper is due. It should be submitted
via Gradescope.
• The final version of the paper should be around 10 pages long, but not more than
12, including graphs and tables (but excluding references and appendix, if any). The
paper should look professional: single-spaced, font size no smaller than 10 pts. (Times
New Roman, Arial, or similar), and reasonable margins.
• Divide your paper into Sections and Subsections. The paper has to be well written
and structured. See Section 3 for more details.
• Make sure that your paper reads well, meaning that it is mechanically correct (check
spelling, grammar, punctuation, make sure paragraphs start with topical sentences,
etc.) and stylistically smooth, expressive, clear, and succinct (sentences and words
well chosen).
A good piece of advice is to ask a friend, preferably a non-econ person, to read it to
see if they get the main idea.

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2 Topic
You are free to choose any topic you like as long as it is related to auctions. The paper can
be theoretical or applied. It can also be empirical if you feel brave enough to analyze data!
Here are some ideas regarding how to choose your topic:

• Before settling on a topic, explore a few ideas, do a little research on them. This
should help you identify a topic that interests you, assess whether there will be enough
resources to carry out your research, and how long will your research take.

• The topic should be narrow enough to allow you to focus and develop a specific idea or
points. However, it shouldn’t be too narrow since this will make it difficult to acquire
information. Also, choose a topic that you can study in the time you have for this
project.

• You can investigate a market that uses auctions. You can describe it, discuss the issues,
analyze the auction rules and their potential implications, and provide suggestions on
how to improve the outcomes.

• You can also investigate a market that does not use auctions but might benefit from
doing so. Again, start by describing the market, analyzing how it is currently run,
what issues do you see, and how an auction may address them.

• If you are planning on an empirical project, keep in mind that data collection and
processing is usually a very time consuming activity. My advice, try to get the data
as soon as possible.

• Acquaint yourself with the existing literature. Identify and read previous work on your
topic. This usually helps narrowing down the economic question you want to address
in your paper.

3 Suggested Structure of the Paper

• Title. The title is a very important —and often neglected— piece of your paper. It
should convey the subject of your paper in a concise, creative way.

• Introduction. The paper should start with an Introduction in which you describe briefly
the topic, the goals of the paper (i.e., what question/s you want to answer), how you
are going to achieve the goals, and a preview of your results. It should also include an
outline of the structure of your paper.

• Main Sections. The body of the paper is where you support, elaborate on, and evaluate
information pertaining to your introductory observation, point, claim, position, and/or
thesis. Divide the body of the paper into sections.
It is always a good idea to include a literature review either as a standalone section
or as part of the Introduction. Discuss what other people have done regarding your

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 topic. Make the connection between papers either by highlighting what they have in
common or how they differ.

• Conclusion. This section should present concluding remarks in a thoughtful and in-
sightful way. Highlight what you have found. Also discuss any limitation of your paper
and/or suggestions for future work.

• References. Don’t forget to list bibliographic information for the references you cite in
the paper. Check the references in the assigned readings and follow their formatting.

• Appendix. This is optional. Here you can include: supporting details on your dataset;
additional graphs or tables that do not relate directly to the point of paper but are
still useful to understand certain aspects of it; a long mathematical proof; etc.