Paper Assignment Details
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Choose a topic covered in this class that especially interests you.
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Briefly explain the topic at start of paper:
Devote 1-2 pages to this. No extra reading needed here: derive from class lectures and discussions, assigned readings and other sources of information that you may already have.
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Expand the topic in the direction of your interest:
State and summarize where you are going with the topic and then go to it! Devote remainder of paper to this. Fine to draw in your personal experience and views in addition to findings from extra reading on the topic.
Example
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Topic: Free Revealing of Innovations by Some Innovators
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Brief explanation of topic:
Here is how free revealing was described in class readings and lectures. Here is how it is thought to work, and what its advantages and disadvantages are thought to be (1-2 pages). -
Expansion of topic in your direction of interest:
Voluntary free revealing of innovations is very different from the efforts to protect innovations that economists have long assumed to be the economically rational thing to do.Here are my ideas about why free revealing will or will not be commonly engaged in by innovators in X field given present conditions in that field. Here is how I think free revealing could be encouraged or discouraged in X field.
Finally, let me summarize the conclusions I draw with respect to the value of free revealing, how to encourage or discourage it, etc.
When are the Papers Due?
You can turn in both 7-page papers (format at 1.5 line spacing please) at the last class. Or, if you want early feedback, you can also turn in one short paper at the midpoint of the class.
