The purpose of the research proposal is to provide a structured way to continue refining your ideas for your final project.

Purpose

The purpose of the research proposal is to provide a structured way to continue refining your ideas for your final project. Research is an iterative process; the research proposal is an opportunity to reflect on what you have learned since submitting your research question, and refining it.

The research proposal should be a minimum of five double-spaced pages in length, edited for spelling and grammar mistakes, and should include:

A clear statement of your research question and a concise definition of what causal relationship you will examine.

An introduction that motivates your research question.

A review of the key studies that are most closely related to your research question and analysis of how your question fits into this existing literature (consider what you took away from the paper that is influencing your work, and summarize that).

A brief description of the data you plan to use in your application.
A definition of the causal variable and the outcome variable. Discuss the content and the precise measurement.

Write down a simple regression equation (one x and one y) that corresponds to your answer above. Describe a potential omitted variable, what impact it has on the causal and explanatory variable, and what the implications are in terms of bias in your regression.

Do you think the effect of the causal variable could be different for different subgroups of your population?

Given your answers above, describe the econometric model you plan to use to answer your research question

A preliminary bibliography, minimum five sources. You can use either Chicago style (Links to an external site.) or APA (Links to an external site.)here.

SAMPLE SOLUTION

The US has witnessed an increase in the cases of obesity especially in the last five years. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) contends that as at 2017, the obesity prevalence rate was 41.4% and has since increased to an average of 42.8% among the adults above 60 years (Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021). Demographically, CDC indicates that children aged 2 to 5 years and the elderly above 60 are placed at the greatest risk of getting obesity and its subsequent opportunistic conditions. If the trend is anything to go by, the rate of obesity especially the vulnerable population is set to spiral with subsequent implications such as chronic conditions and even death being witnessed. There are many factors that contribute to the increased cases of obesity. This e..