Analysis of Financial Data

Appendix A. Writing an empirical project

This appendix offers general guidelines on writing an empirical paper or project. Chapter 2 discusses many data sources should you wish to collect your own data for your project. Alternatively, the website associated with this book contains all the data used in the empirical illustrations in this book. If you are interested in working with cross-sectional data, EQUITY.XLS could form the basis for a good project (see Exercise 7.7). If you are interested in time series data, then Exercise 9.9 could form the basis for an empirical project. If you are interested in financial volatility then Exercise 12.3 is a good place to start.

Description of a typical empirical project

Financial analysts are engaged in research in a wide variety of areas today. Undergraduate and graduate students, academics, financial advisors, investment advisors working in the private sector, policymakers working in the civil service and central banks – may all need to write reports that involve analyzing financial data. Depending on the topic and intended audience, the form of these reports can vary widely, so that there is no one correct format for an empirical paper. With this in mind, we provide an outline that a financial report below as a guideline for future empirical work. Note, however, that, in the context of your own undergraduate projects or careers, it may not be necessary for you to include all of these elements in your report(s).

1. Introduction. Most reports begin ...