In their final year, students will complete their capstone project. A capstone project is a two-semester long, in-depth study which culminates in a written essay and presentation. The capstone project will be supported and structured through student participation in a research seminar series (worth 10 Units total over the year). This will allow students to proceed with their research in a collaborative and structured environment, and also facilitate their exposure to a broad variety of topic areas and research designs.

The primary objective of the capstone is to develop and apply the skills required to write original research. It will provide experience that is particularly valuable for students interested in careers that require producing and not just consuming analysis and/or those seeking to pursue graduate programmes in economics or allied areas such as business, law, political science, and public policy.

Students will use the skills they developed through coursework to design, implement, and write a paper on an economics topic of their own choosing. The thesis provides students with the opportunity to tackle larger and more ambitious topics than would typically be assigned in an undergraduate economics course. Applied topics are the most common, and most make use of econometric techniques. However, more theoretical projects are also an option.

Students are expected to develop a carefully reasoned exposition that critically analyses a problem using basic principles of economics. Given the variety of topics and techniques available, it is difficult to give an exact guideline on an appropriate length for these research papers. A tentative maximum of 10,000 words serves as a rough guideline, but this count should not be treated as a target as the final paper will be graded based on its execution, not on its length. Students conducting empirical work will submit their data and accompanying files to their supervisor with the final paper. All student submissions will also be submitted for plagiarism detection. Each student will be matched with a Capstone Supervisor. Students may choose from almost any topic in Economics that is of interest to them, subject to the approval of their supervisor. Support from other faculty members may be sought as necessary. Each student must submit a capstone proposal form at the early stages of research.

To give a sense of the scope of possible topics, here are some sample titles from past Economics capstones:

• Do Language Training Programs Improve the Integration of Immigrants?
• Does Grandparental Childcare Support Increase Mothers’ Labor Supply?
• Does Public Transport Affect Private Residential Property Prices in Singapore?
• Measuring the Deterioration of Trust on the Dark Web
• Micro-level Effects of Macro-level Uncertainty: Evidence from Cargo Shipping
• School Toilets and Gender-based Violence: Evidence from India
• The Effect of Financial Development on Robotization: Theory and Evidence
• The Malaise of the Malays: The Effects of Race on Callbacks in Singapore

Completion of the capstone will have two distinct phases:

Semester 1 – The first semester of the capstone project will involve participation in the capstone research seminar organised by the Capstone Module Coordinators (CMCs). Early in that term, there will be a number of workshops on research methods, specifically as they relate to data analysis and writing the capstone proposal. Students will identify an area of interest and specify an appropriate research question, explore the existing related literature, determine appropriate research methods to address the question, and learn how to apply empirical/theoretical skills acquired from their courses to the specific question. Each student will also be expected to give presentations in the fall term on their area of research interest and their research proposal.

Semester 2 – The second semester of the capstone will continue this process. Students will continue to develop their proposals and carry out their projects, culminating in both a written paper and a presentation of their final results.