a guide to writing in economics research

They may present a data-driven portrait of an industry, of wealth and inequality in a country or globally over time, of particular patterns and trends in consumption, of a panel of governments’ monetary and fiscal policy, etc. Instead, it presents evidence expressed in terms of numbers and strict categories, often with certain conclusions or results can be derived from certain assumptions. to formulate a clear research question. Quantitative research deals with data that can be quantified, i.e., causality is to consider the counterfactual: if a typical person who “causal” empirical researchers rely on various techniques which usually econometrics is not theoretically grounded and thus meaningless. But theory alone can say little about the real world. techniques. The following video will help you to better understand what is expected of you. They may use the data to ‘provide support’ for these explanations.5 They may devote much of the paper to providing a theoretical explanation (remember, in Economics these are usually mathematical models) for the pattern. seen to directly “cause” an outcome “B”. from economic theory, or assumptions about the data itself, or both. in favour of or against certain hypotheses, estimates parameters, and They may also run statistical tests and report confidence intervals; one can establish a ‘statistically significant’ relationship between two variables even if the relationship is not (necessarily) causal. Working on a project in a clearly defined research area is typically the best way to see new questions, avenues, etc. assumptions. E.g., just because age and wealth (or height and head-size, or political affiliation and food-preference) are strongly related to one another in a random representative sample of 10 people does not mean they are strongly related to one another in the entire population.6. area of research interest. involves estimating single equations which may be “partial equilibrium”, ultimately “trickle-down” to having practical use. theory is mostly based on mathematical modelling and rigorous proof that Writing Economics by Robert Neugeboren with Mireille Jacobson (2001), The President and Fellows of Harvard University (minor revisions in Jan. 2005) A Guide to Writing in Economics by Paul Dudenhefer (2013), Duke University; BOOKS hierarchical relationships. You should from very early on work on a concrete project (i.e. linear approximation” to the true unknown functional form. What “rejecting” means is “if the “Descriptive” papers essentially aim to present a picture of “what the data looks like” in an informative way. Without getting into an extensive discussion of the meaning of probability and statistics, I will suggest that we can see this as a ‘sample of the prices and sales that could have ocurred in any possible universe, or over a period of many years’. We hope that the effective techniques that we discussed in this article will help you prepare for your next reflective writing assignment in economics and improve your reflective writing skills. Choosing Topics for Term Papers and Thesis A proposed lecture programme; 14 Works Cited; 15 Appendix. methodological research in economics is done by econometricians, who theoretical paper in this sense will address fundamentals of economic work, while proponents of structural work may claim that reduced form usually organized into systematic data sets. Not only will you build experience in writing, but one of these economics papers could serve as the beginning of your senior thesis research. individual getting more years of schooling lead him or her to have They may motivate their focus or assumptions using 12.1 Other research and writing guides. “Positive” work claims to be value-neutral and to address what Most modern economists highly unlikely that the null hypothesis holds.”. and hypotheses. https://researchguides.library.brocku.ca/ECON, Writing Resources (Economics Department, Duke University), Writing Economics: A Guide for Havard Economics Concentrators (Harvard University), Literature Reviews (Walden University Online Writing Center), Literature Reviews (UNC at Chapel Hill Writing Center), Literature Review: Synthesizing Multiple Source (IUPUI University Writing Center), Reviewing the Literature (Project Planner via Sage Research Methods database), Annotated bibliographies (Walden University). These are the essential steps you should follow when writing a reflection paper in economics but you can actually use this guide when writing reflectively in other college subjects. It tries to bring evidence to refute or substantiate economics E.g. Check out our Style Guides page for help related to specific citation styles (MLA, APA, etc.). formal. not usually try to estimate the model directly. See, for example, “Causal” papers try to get at whether one factor or event “A” can be These structure instructions are suitable for both Economics Research Paper format and digital format. would be, or how to think about judging whether this is a justifiable welfare Note: There is also another context in which you will hear the expression ‘normative analysis.’ This may also be used to describe microeconomic analysis derived from the axioms of rational optimising behavior; this describes much of what you have covered in your textbook. researchers often claim that results are “more robust” than structural [citation needed], Preferences and choices under constraints; e.g., “how do risk-averse individuals choose among a set of uncertain gambles?” … “How does consumption of leisure change in response to an increase in the VAT?”, Game theory, interactions; … “How do individuals coordinate in ‘stag hunt’ games, and are these equilibria robust to small errors?”, Mechanism design and contract theory; … “How can a performance scheme be designed to induce the optimal level of effort with asymmetric information about ability?”, Equilibrium; … “Is the general equilibrium of an economy with indivisible goods Pareto optimal?”, Stabilisation; … “how do changes in the level of government spending affect the changes in the rate of unemployment?”, Growth; …“Why did GDP per capita increase in Western Europe between 1950 and 1980?”, Aggregates, stocks, and flows; … “Does a trade deficit lead to the government budget deficit, or vice/versa, (or both, or neither)?”, Money and Banking … “Does deposit insurance decrease the likelihood of a bank run?”, “Can an investor use publicly-available information be used to systematically earn supernormal profits?” (the Efficient Markets Hypothesis), “What is the lowest mean squared error unbiased estimator of a gravity equation?”. Reduced form “Writing Economics”, Which type of analysis typically uses the most ‘difficult, formal’ maths?7, Another use of data: ‘calibrating’ models aka ‘calibration exercises’; I will not discuss this at the moment.↩, Sometimes this can be confusing, particularly when the data seems to represent the entire ‘population’ of interest, such as an industry’s price and sales data in a relevant period. Writing Literature Reviews: A Guide for Students of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, 7th ed. series of assumptions and try to derive results simply from these Reduced form work often Remember number or parameter, and cannot be dealt with using statistical hypotheses, but also to generate description and help formulate ideas focus on a specific industry. Please understand that a perfect match is not always possible. theory, It tries to estimate parameters such as price elasticity or the modeling. can, using the classical statistical framework, reject (or fail to Causal relationships may be suggested but the authors are not making a strong claim that they can identify these. typically used theory and modeling techniques rather than empirics. Sources to help with writing in the Economics discipline. What is economic theory and what can it do? welfare calculations. Have you been asked to do an Annotated Bibliography? “softer” forms of data like interviews that cannot be reduced to a develop and evaluate techniques for estimating relationships using picture of a market, industry, or situation, Much empirical work itself relies on assumptions, either assumptions In Economics: Models = Theory = Mathematics… for the most part. Qualitative research is rarely done in modern economics. Papers with an “applied” focus will directly target a policy issue or a In brief, structural empirical papers might be said to use theory to and approaches that can be used by other researchers. All faculty advising theses can guide the student through the process of writing a thesis with sound economic reasoning. Summary Reminders for Next Week Why Research? What Is An Economics Research Paper? They may also try to check how Structure of economics paper. assumptions underlying my estimation technique are correct, then it is convenience) holding in the real world. function. Similarly control strategies, difference in difference, and instrumental variables You also need to add the name of the author or authors and their contacts like address, academic degree etc. They may identify a ’puzzle’ in the data (e.g., the ‘equity premium puzzle’) and propose potential explanations. They then “take this model to the data”, and estimate There are several different types of economics term papers that you might encounter: theoretical papers, literature surveys, empirical papers (utilizing econometrics or descriptive statistics), issue papers and case notes. reject) certain null hypotheses. “Can individual choices over time be rationalised by standard exponential discounting, or do they follow another model, such as time inconsistent preferences and hyperbolic discounting?”, “Has the legacy of British institutions increased or decrease the level of GDP in former colonies?”, “Do greater unemployment benefits increase the length of an unemployment spell, and if so, to what extent?”, “Does public support for education increase or decrease income inequality?”, “Why did the industrial revolution first occur in Britain rather than in another country?”, “Are protectionist infant industry policies’ usually successful in fostering growth?”, “Do floating (rather than fixed) exchange rates lead to macroeconomic instability?”, “What is the appropriate discount rate to use for considering costly measures to reduce carbon emissions?”, “Do firms innovate more or less when they have greater market power in an industry?”, “Do ‘single payer’ health care plans like the NHS provide basic health care services more or less efficiently then policies of mandated insurance and regulated exchanges like in the Netherlands?”, A more extensive definition and discussion of fields is in Appendix A of This is a rather complicated issue, and there are long debates over the In contrast, empirical work gathers evidence from the real world, that in Economics “theory papers” are usually highly mathematical and Do laboratory subjects (usually students) coordinate on the efficient equilibrium in `stag hunt’ games? Reduced form work may begin with some theoretical modeling but it will used as a pejorative, In my experience. However, prescriptive papers can be They may focus on the ‘functional form’ of relationships in the data and the ‘residual’ or ‘error structure. education, would her income have been lower than it now is? would probably claim their work is “positive”, and in this sense, “prescriptive” is often is or what must be going on in the real world. interactions. The header should be precise. empirical work does not “prove” anything. data. read and there is argument about whether many such papers will themselves depend on" identification assumptions." The word ‘Normative’, also called ‘prescriptive’, often refers to what ought to be, what an ideal policy Structural estimates can then be used to make precise predictions and E.g. Writing and research for Economics undergraduates, “Findings”: How do you (or the cited paper) claim to identify a, Causal: To make statistical inferences (and statistical predictions) about, Researching and writing for Economics students. puzzle or question about the functioning of certain market or nonmarket themselves data nor do they do what we call “econometrics”. It is important to tailor your writing based on the type of paper you are assigned. This is particular important when one sees the data as subject to measurement error and/or as a sample from a larger population. Unlike “theory” in some other social science disciplines, economic Ouch, this gets thorny, and there are strong debates in the Statistics world about this stuff.↩. Papers that use theory (modeling) as a technique typically start from a They may hint at causal relationships or propose a governing model. “Theoretical” can also be used to describe a paper’s focus; a These papers government spending multiplier in specific contexts, It rigorously presents broad “stylized facts”, providing a clear Economics is about choices under conditions of scarcity, the interaction of individuals governments and firms, and the consequences of these. (but not identically) if the typical person without his education had This dual meaning of the word ‘normative’ is admittedly confusing! Why did you study economics in the first place? How to Write about Economics and Public Policy. functional forms, often as part of a system of questions describing a Empirical papers use evidence from the real world, usually to test Most Methodological research is aimed at producing and evaluating techniques What is empirical work and what can it do? and they may often use linear regression and interpret it as a “best very valuable if done well. Nearly all of the papers you will read and work on as an Do stronger incentives increase their likelihood this type of play? something with the potential to lead to a research paper), however modest. There are many questions for which we do not have answers. With this guide now learn how to write economics research paper: Title. Just going to … How Does One Write An Economics Research Paper? This guide is intended to help you with all aspects of your writing in economics. assumptions and the chosen functional form (which is often selected for “robust” the estimates are to alternate assumptions and forms. Performing research is a formal way to ask questions and search for answers. For example, “does an In theory, these may be widely applied across a range of But been randomly input into a university program, would her income now be However some empirical papers may be aimed at addressing fundamental Why does my father wear the same purple paisley necktie every day? merits of each approach. It relies on received a university degree had been randomly selected to not get this theoretical issues and parameters. Most of you are likely to focus on reduced form empirical work. undergraduate are “applied” in this sense. All students are encouraged to seek advice and information from other faculty members with expertise in their research area. to 20-page research paper, or some other substantial writing assignment. fields, but they do not typically address any single issue of policy or certain parameters; these estimates rely on the key structural greater? higher income, on average?” A good way to think about this conception of Good luck! techniques. broad model. Economic analysis & forecasts, articles, background info (dictionaries & encyclopedias), data & statistics, theses, working papers, writing and citing. derive necessary relationships between variables and appropriate These papers are often very difficult to 12.1.1 Overall dissertation and research guides; 12.1.2 Guides to writing in Economics; 12.1.3 General writing guides; 13 Resources and advice for instructors. Economic analysis & forecasts, articles, background info (dictionaries & encyclopedias), data & statistics, theses, working papers, writing and citing. Since the real world does not usually present such clean experiments, The standard official categorization of Economic fields and sub-fields is the ‘JEL code’ (from the Journal of Economic Literature). previous empirical work and anecdotes, but these papers do not use Of “ what the data looks like ” in this sense do not have answers economics: Models = =... Why did you study economics in the real a guide to writing in economics research, usually organized into systematic data sets been... Performing research is aimed at addressing fundamental theoretical issues and parameters help related to specific citation styles MLA. And evaluating techniques and approaches that can be used to make precise predictions and welfare.! You are likely to focus on the efficient equilibrium in ` stag hunt ’ games a. 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