Question

I need help choosing a topic for my reseach paper:

Financial Markets Research Paper

Each student will prepare an argumentative financial markets research paper, developed with appropriate evidence drawn from primary and secondary source material that demonstrates understanding and fluency in key course topics.The research paper topic must explore a problem, question or issue bearing on U.S. financial markets and institutions that is historically significant or currently important.

To develop your topic, it is recommended that students review all course topics prior to or at the very start of the course to develop ideas about their paper topic.

The key that you need to think about is "Is this a problem?" In order for it to be a problem, somebody/some group must to be negatively impacted by the situation. If the problem is that there are not enough wooden bicycle wheels in stores, but nobody is impacted by the lack of wooden bicycle wheels, then it isn't a problem.

If you choose a historical issue, you cannot choose one that is already solved because that defeats the purpose of the paper, which is to attempt to solve it yourself.

You can choose an issue at your company, however it needs to be a strategic one. Several students in the past have used this paper as a way to prepare for board-level and executive presentations of non-confidential topics. One student looked into the best ways to repatriate currency from a foreign country; another looked into ways to increase profitability because newly-enacted government regulations took out a major amount of revenue. All submissions will be kept private

MSM students and medical professionals can address medical related topics: health insurance, pharma, etc.

Answer 1

I can give an overview of how to approach this paper.However you have to make a final call on whether this idea can be worked upon further and whether you can gather necessary data to support it.

• Idea - Re inventing Financial products that are available on shelf using Big Data.

• Need -

In 2008 when US financial markets ( especially the home buyers) was shook by subprime mortgage crisis it lead to reduced risk appetite for investors. There is a general negative perception towards investment in financial markets.

• Evidence -

Number of stock market corrections post 2008.Stock market shrinking in terms of capital, reduced returns on bonds etc.

• Impact - Such a negative perception and hangover of the same in the long run can lead to Capital outflow thus depreciating Dollar, Less availability of capital stocks for businesses and startups that undertake projects on R&D.

How can Big Data help?

• Reduce shadow banking practices.
• Increase in availability of specific data regarding consumer spending. An orderly historical record will help in understanding trends/patterns and therefore it can be analysed for developing financial products.

For example if majority of expenditure is on necessity goods - risk appetite is low.

If consumer spending is lot on international tourism then people are willing to invest in financial instruments available worldwide.

Or if most of the leisure time is spent on watching TV shows/uploading videos on You tube channel - Does not have acumen in investing in financial markets.

One can use various such data to understand new relationships among variables ( If at all it exits and how are they correlated).One can also find out what all goods can be classified as necessities and luxuries in current period.

• Understanding demographics in US - Can help in redesigning financial products.( If most of the population is above 55 years age bracket then risk appetite is less , most of the consumption is taking pace in second period ( Inter temporal consumption )

Example of Re invention - Improved performance and returns on green stocks ( businesses that make use of clean energy and generates less ecological footprint) can generate positive perceptions about such businesses vis-a-vis polluting businesses/industries.