Managing a Resource Under Pressure
ECON 341 group project guideline
The challenge
Work in a team of three to investigate any topic within Natural Resource Economics. You are not limited to the topics in the resource topic atlas. Choose a focused research question and make and defend an economic argument, rather than writing a general descriptive report:
What natural resource question will your group investigate, which economic framework helps explain it, and what do your findings imply for resource use, management, value, or policy?
The final product may be theoretical, empirical, or a combination of both. Any empirical dataset and any change in team membership or topic require instructor approval.
A strong question has five parts
- Topic and scope: What resource, service, market, institution, or related economic issue will you study?
- Decision margin: What can a harvester, landowner, household, insurer, community, or regulator choose?
- Economic mechanism: Which course concept explains the relevant incentives, choices, or outcomes?
- Outcome: What will you explain or compare—stock, harvest, land use, exposure, coverage, welfare, or distribution?
- Comparison: Which policies, allocations, scenarios, behaviors, or explanations will you compare?
Question builder
Start with a question you can explain in everyday language. For a project comparing choices, try:
How would [one specific change] affect [people or a resource] in [a place], compared with [what happens now]?
For example:
In a coastal town, how would a limit on how many fish each boat can catch affect the fish population and fishers’ earnings, compared with having no catch limit?
Then ask: Who might benefit, and who might face costs? Could the effects differ between this year and several years from now?
This is one possible approach, not a required format. Your question does not have to be about a policy change.
Required economic analysis
Your presentation and proposal should make these links visible:
- a diagram or conceptual framework suited to your question, such as stock-flow, demand and supply, benefit-cost, valuation, or hazard-exposure analysis;
- incentives faced by the relevant decision-makers;
- the central economic mechanism, including any relevant market failure or governance problem;
- a model, graph, or structured counterfactual;
- evidence that can distinguish among claims;
- a clear benchmark and relevant alternatives, such as the status quo, competing policies, management rules, or allocation paths;
- efficiency, distribution, implementation, and uncertainty; and
- one limitation that would change how cautiously a reader should interpret the result.
You may use benefit-cost analysis, dynamic allocation, scarcity rent, biological growth, valuation, property-rights analysis, expected-loss analysis, or another course framework suited to the question.
Evidence plan
Prefer a question that can be answered with evidence available at a scale you can manage. A useful evidence table contains:
| Question | Information you need | Where to find it | Place, time, and units | What the information may miss |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What is changing? | Fish population or habitat condition | Government reports or published research | Population in a place and year | Estimates may not be exact |
| Why is it changing? | Prices, rules, or harvesting decisions | Government records or surveys | Decisions in a place and period | Other factors could also explain the change |
| Who gains or loses? | Costs, benefits, incomes, or access | Several sources | Affected groups and place | Some groups may not be included |
The resource topic atlas offers optional examples and official sources; it is not a required topic list. A source being official does not make every comparison causal. State what the data can and cannot establish. Theoretical projects may use published research, analytical examples, or numerical illustrations to support their reasoning.
Deliverables
Kickoff report · November 6, 11:59 PM
Use the kickoff-report template. Keep the main report to one page, excluding the evidence table and references. Include:
- team members and working title;
- one-sentence research question;
- the topic, relevant decision-makers, and setting;
- what you will compare, including what happens now when relevant;
- one course model you expect to use;
- a short evidence table describing the information you need and where to find it;
- the biggest challenge your group expects and how you will address it; and
- citations and a reference list for the sources used.
Cite sources in the text that support your question, economic framework, and evidence plan. List the author or organization, title, year, and a link when available, using a consistent citation style.
Presentation · December 2–7
Prepare a 10-minute argument followed by questions. Build around one visual model, one evidence display, and one decision. Every team member must speak. End with the strongest objection to your recommendation and your response.
Proposal · December 15
Use the research proposal template to prepare a polished proposal with these sections:
- Research question and motivation
- Topic, scope, and relevant setting
- Economic framework
- Evidence and proposed method
- Comparisons, expected findings, and trade-offs
- Limitations, uncertainty, and distribution
- Work plan and references
Use in-text citations and include complete references in a consistent citation style.
Unless the instructor approves another format, aim for 8–10 double-spaced pages, excluding figures, tables, and references.
After the final presentation, each student submits the confidential peer-evaluation form.
Project score
| Component | Share of project score |
|---|---|
| Peer evaluation | 5% |
| Kickoff report | 10% |
| Presentation | 50% |
| Proposal | 35% |
Evaluation emphasizes the quality of the question, economic reasoning, appropriate use of evidence or modeling, oral communication, and constructive peer evaluation.
Approval checkpoint
Before investing heavily in data cleaning, send the instructor:
- the exact research question;
- one observation-level example or data dictionary;
- the geographic and time coverage;
- the intended outcome and comparison; and
- any access, licensing, or missing-data concern.
A precise question with a clear economic mechanism is stronger than a tour of every issue within a broad topic. Studying one resource system is one way to focus your project, not a restriction on the topics you may choose.