Research Skills for Economists

Econ 504, Michaelmas 2019/2020

Academic Skills for Economists:

The nature of economic research
How do I find the “right topic”?
Reviewing the literature
How to write a paper
 Reminder: Paper and Presentation
– You write an empirical paper of 5 pages (excluding tables) with
proper introduction, short literature review, methodology, results,
and conclusions; see articles in Economics Letters
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01651765).
– You present your paper in 5 minutes (with possibility of questions
from other students and the teacher) in week 11 (January).
 Presentation and content (written and oral) are marked
(weights: 80% paper, 20% presentation).

• Deadline for paper submission: Friday 10th January 2020 at 6pm

• Deadline for slides submission: Monday 13th January 2020 at 6pm
• Presentations will take place on Wed 15 January 2020 (9-3)
Your paper/presentation
• You should conduct an empirical exercise with some originality
(e.g. reproducing existing results on different country/period,
reproducing existing results with different methods).
• Doesn’t have to be ground-breaking new ideas, rather an
incremental approach
• E.g. a study which uses data on Ethiopia, look for a similar
dataset on another country
• A study which uses matching methods, try another method
(difference-in-differences, panel data methods, instrumental
variable)
• A study which uses a dataset from 2005, update results to 2015
• If you are struggling to find something use the Young Lives
dataset for one country, and take an idea from a paper on that
website – apply a similar idea to another country.
• Details of Young Lives data were in last week’s lecture and we
used the Peru R5 in the clinic last week too
 Research Skills for Economists
Econ 504, Michaelmas 2019/2020

Part I: The nature of economic research

How do I find the “right topic”?
What is original research?

• The frontier advances in tiny steps

• Small incremental changes are the norm
• Seminal contributions are very scarce

Examples:
• New evidence and data on an old issue/problem:
– Different countries, updated data
– Sensitivity of existing results
• New methodology for an old problem
• Established method for a new problem
How do I find “the right topic”?

• There is “no right topic”

• Much more important is to find something that is important
to you and genuinely interest you
• There are great papers/dissertations to be written in almost
all fields
• Three important rules:
1) Interesting-relevant
2) Innovative
3) Feasible
How do I know if I have an interesting topic?

• “Why should I care?”

• How am I going to convince sceptics that they should pay

attention to my research?

• Talk to people in the profession (e.g. supervisors, peers) as

much as possible about your idea. Do not restrict yourself
to people in your field
• Go from general to specific. No need for the
paper/dissertation “That explains Everything”
Where do I start?

No magic recipe but a good starting strategy:

• If you want to write theory, read empirics
• If you want to write empirics, read theory
• Read popular books, magazines, … make connections
• Aim is to know where is the “research frontier” (again talk to
your supervisors, lecturers), look at recent review or papers
• Go seminars, events, …
• Read the working papers of the intellectual leaders in your
narrowly focused research area, follow their blogs, follow
them on twitter
• Read the best journals selectively
• Talk, talk, Talk! Write, Write, Write!
Research Skills for Economists
Econ 504, Michaelmas 2018/2019

Academic Skills for Economists:

Literature review
Research Skills for Economists
Econ 504, Michaelmas 2019/2020

PART II

How to write a paper?

Research Skills for Economists
Econ 504, Michaelmas 2017/218

Jean-Francois Maystadt
Academic Skills for Economists:
How to write a paper?
Research Skills for Economists
Econ 504, Michaelmas 2017/218

Jean-Francois Maystadt
Academic Skills for Economists:
How to write a paper?
Research Skills for Economists
Econ 504, Michaelmas 2017/218

Jean-Francois Maystadt
Academic Skills for Economists:
How to write a paper?
Research Skills for Economists
Econ 504, Michaelmas 2017/218

Jean-Francois Maystadt
Academic Skills for Economists:
How to write a paper?
Research Skills for Economists
Econ 504, Michaelmas 2017/218

Jean-Francois Maystadt
Academic Skills for Economists:
How to write a paper?
Research Skills for Economists
Econ 504, Michaelmas 2017/218

Jean-Francois Maystadt
Academic Skills for Economists:
How to write a paper?
Research Skills for Economists
Econ 504, Michaelmas 2017/218

Jean-Francois Maystadt
Academic Skills for Economists:
How to write a paper?
Research Skills for Economists
Econ 504, Michaelmas 2017/218

Jean-Francois Maystadt
Academic Skills for Economists:
How to write a paper?
Research Skills for Economists
Econ 504, Michaelmas 2017/218

Jean-Francois Maystadt
Academic Skills for Economists:
How to write a paper?
Research Skills for Economists
Econ 504, Michaelmas 2017/218

Jean-Francois Maystadt
Academic Skills for Economists:
How to write a paper?
Research Skills for Economists
Econ 504, Michaelmas 2017/218

Jean-Francois Maystadt
Academic Skills for Economists:
How to write a paper?
Research Skills for Economists
Econ 504, Michaelmas 2017/218

Jean-Francois Maystadt
Academic Skills for Economists:
How to write a paper?
Research Skills for Economists
Econ 504, Michaelmas 2017/218

Jean-Francois Maystadt
Academic Skills for Economists:
How to write a paper?
Research Skills for Economists
Econ 504, Michaelmas 2017/218

Jean-Francois Maystadt
Academic Skills for Economists:
How to write a paper?
Research Skills for Economists
Econ 504, Michaelmas 2017/218

Jean-Francois Maystadt
Academic Skills for Economists:
How to write a paper?
 Key point
• Start writing soon
• Write and rewrite
• It is easier to rewrite than to put the first
words on the paper

• Write, write, write!