How's this for an Economic Undergraduate Thesis Topic...

[josen95]

Greetings all, 

 

Really just looking for opinions, suggestions, comments, or even just reactions of any sort…

 

For the most part, the undergrad theses are empirical studies applying econometric methods to data. I'm currently trying to think of a nice idea for my thesis - something relevant/significant, novel, or unorthodox to catch attention and ideally win Best Thesis Award. I find the overall theme of "Economics Applied Unto Itself" to be most interesting - things like "the economic value of an economist", "the value of economic knowledge", or "the effect of the development and teaching of the economics discipline on the behavior of the actual economy itself". Obviously those idea themes are too broad and abstract to be topics; I just wanted to mention the inspiration/feel where I'm coming from (in case it happens to be silly/weird). Such broad themes are open to multiple specific interpretations, and I was able to think of a number of them. Below is the one I think (hope) to be the most novel and significant/relevant for something feasible at my level.
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Topic: “Valuing the Economic R&D of the Academe”

 

The basic idea behind this is to estimate a figure for the amount of value economic R&D generates in my university. This is to ideally measure the impact, "productivity", or "efficiency" of the university's economic R&D program in terms of all the costs related to its funding and operation, as well as its outputs and their effects. This can then be set in cross-comparison to the economic R&D of other universities or even the R&D of other disciplines such as engineering and psychology. Doing this would ideally yield an insight into how impactful economic R&D really is, and possibly how it fares in comparison to R&D in other areas. The term ‘R&D’ is most often used in reference to scientific R&D, which yields benefit through innovation and technological change. However, the R&D of the natural sciences isn’t the only kind there is; neither is technological progress the only way R&D can benefit society (e.g. social progress from sociological/psychological R&D). Unfortunatley, there appears to be little economic research done exploring the nature of other kinds of R&D. So what better place to start than with yourself? To me, the significance appears to be quite straightforward. Economists are well known for being highly critical about all kinds of things. Now, via the same objective/empirical tools, it’s time they practice what they preach and turn their critical analysis onto their own line of work as well. While this thesis topic would be treading unfrequented territory with a limited scope, at the very least, it hopes to pioneer future more in-depth and reliable research. With respect to policy implication, I see this perhaps potentially leading to the development of a more refined approach to financing R&D and guiding of its operations to maximize productivity.

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Would you say that this interests you, has potential, or at least makes sense? Have you ever heard of or encountered a study like this before? Any good sources - similar books/studies? Any issues or suggestions of alternative topics/approaches you’d like to raise? Was that all just silly and stupid like I fear it might be?

Thank you!