For Learners

A teacher can explain bicycle parts, but only you can learn how to ride. 

Economic expertise is based in formal and tacit knowledge. Formal knowledge can be written or explained verbally, for example mathematical properties of the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm. But tacit knowledge - practical know-how - comes from doing.

Research is a process for creating new knowledge that relies on both formal and tacit knowledge. Researchers communicate this new knowledge through argument, which is composed of the following parts:

1. a main point, which is also known as a  recommendation / claim / conclusion / thesis / assertion

2. evidence, such as historical facts, data visualizations, econometric results, citations of existing research findings, etc.

3. assumptions/theory (also known as 'reasons') that link evidence to the main point.

4. argument structure: the overall inferential architecture—how the evidence and assumptions fit together to support and imply the main point. 

Here are some introductions to argument basics

• Argument Mapping introduction (Harvard)

• Argument mapping basics

• Toulmin Argument Map

• Abduction epistemology in Economics

• Epistemological approaches in Economics

Here is some recent research created by my students: 

• How do Strategic Buyers Value Synergies in Different Macroeconomic Conditions? by Taylor Hopkin

• Empirical Commodity Asset Pricing, by Max Shackleford

• How Does CEO Compensation Structure Affect Healthcare Firms' R&D Investment? by Davin Lim

• Alternative measures of profitability and investment in factor models by Kyle Berlage

• Excess Return Properties of Informationally Insensitive Dynamic Return Predictability Strategies, by Tony Wang

Here are some tips for communicating your research:

• The first lesson of descriptive writing

• Writing what you like, not just what you are fed (developing taste)

• Minto Pyramid

• Guide to Writing in Economics (Dudenhefer)

• Twitter feed on Social Science Writing (David Eil)

• An indispensable guide to nonfiction writing

Here are some data visualization and table guides:

• Visualization tells a story

• Chart Guide (storytellingwithdata)

• Chart Guide (WSJ)

• An Economist's Guide to Visualizing Data

• Ten Guidelines for Better Tables

Here are some suggestions for giving feedback to other researchers:

• Tips for being a good paper discussant

Here are some undergraduate journals where you can publish your research:

• Berkeley Economic Review

• Ceteris Paribus (UNC)

• Columbia Economic Review

• Columbia Journal of Politics and Society

• Comparative Advantage (Stanford)

• Cornell Undergraduate Economic Review

• Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Politics, Economics and World Affairs

• Equilibria: Duke Economics Review 

• Issues in Political Economy

• Student Economic Review (Trinity College Dublin)

• The Developing Economist (U Texas Austin)

• The Tulane Journal of Policy and Political Economy

• Undergraduate Economic Review

Here are some pre-submission checklists:

• Pre-submission checklist 1

• Pre-submission checklist 2

Here are a few econ tutorials and refreshers:

• Math pre-refresher (Harvard)

• Mathematics for Economists overview (85 pages)

• Linear Algebra

• Statistics (MIT)

• Causal inference introduction (Elise Dumas)

• The long and short of OVB (M. Joshway)

Here's a list of interesting concepts for thinking logically (in progress)

• Ill-posed inverse problem