tips

Advice and Resources for Econ Ph.D. Students by Prof. Michèle Tertilt

Tips for Economists by Masayuki Kudamatsu

Applying for PhD programs in economics

American Economic Association (2007) "Graduate Studies in Economics"

New York University (2004) "Applying to the PhD Program in Economics at NYU" - Although this is meant for those applicants interested in NYU, it provides quite a few useful pieces of information for all economics PhD applicants.

Athey (undated) "Advice for Applying to Graduate School in Economics" - as the author is a professor at Harvard (and previously at Stanford and MIT), this advice is useful at least for applying to the top 5 schools .

Rachael Meager (2012) “How to get into a Top 10 Economics PhD Program (from Australia)” Core Economics. NEW!!

Blattman (2007) "How to get a PhD *and* save the world" - This piece of writing targets prospective PhD students interested in development economics (and perhaps in other policy-oriented fields of economics).

Mankiw (2010) “Choosing a Graduate Program” - If you receive more than one admission offers.

How to proceed with your PhD life

Pischke (2009) “How to get started on research in economics?”

Creedy (2007) "A PhD Thesis Without Tears" University of Melbourne Department of Economics Research Paper no. 987. (HT: Chris Blattman)

Creedy (2001) "Starting Research" Australian Economic Review, 34(1): 116-24. (HT: Chris Blattman)

Dixit (1998) ''My System of Work (Not!)'' in Michael Szenberg ed. Passion and Craft: How Economists Work (University of Michigan Press). - See pages 7-9 on the author's recommended ''habits of work'' as an economist.

Davis (undated) "If You Want Me to Serve as a Thesis Sponsor or Co-Sponsor..." Although this is the author's personal way of supervising his PhD students, it also helps how you proceed with your PhD life after finishing coursework.

Davis (undated) "PhD Thesis Research: Where Do I Start?" The last half of this note provides tips for PhD life.

Hamermesh (2005) "An Old Male Economist's Advice to young Female Economists" CSWEP Newsletter, Winter 2005, pp. 11-12 - although this is meant for women, quite a few points can apply to men as well.

Tertilt (undated) "Some Advice (and Resources) for Econ Ph.D. Students" - What's unique is the first two pieces of advice. It also has a variety of links.

Kudamatsu (2007) “Job Market Tips” - This is the set of slides I used when I gave a talk on the job market to PhD students in Stockholm University. Although it is about the job market, it’s actually more about how to proceed with your PhD life from the viewpoint of making your academic job hunting successful.

Choosing a research topic

Ross Levine (undated) ''Recommendations for Better Research"

Dixit (1998) ''My System of Work (Not!)'' in Michael Szenberg ed. Passion and Craft: How Economists Work (University of Michigan Press). - See page 4.

Jones (undated) "General Advice for Graduate Students at Berkeley" - The paragraphs under the title "On Writing a Thesis:" are useful when you are choosing a topic.

Levine (undated) "David Levine's Cheap Advice for Writing a Dissertation"

Davis (undated) "PhD Thesis Research: Where Do I Start?" The first half of this note deals with how to choose a topic.

Davis (undated) "What Makes for a Successful Paper and Seminar?": This is also useful for choosing a research topic.

Varian (1997) "How to Build an Economic Model in Your Spare Time" - Sections 1 and 2 offer tips for finding a topic.

Building a theoretical model

Varian (1997) "How to Build an Economic Model in Your Spare Time" - Sections 4 to 6 explain how to build a theoretical model. (I think sections 3 and 7 are controversial - the literature review should be done before starting to build a model; otherwise your time will be wasted.).

Doing empirical work

Cochrane (2005) "Writing Tips for Ph.D. Students," Section 3 (pp.9-11)

Finkelstein (2007) “An unofficial guide to trying to do empirical work” (MS Powerpoint file). The 2006 version is here (MS Powerpoint file).

McKenzie, Karlan, and Yang (2011) “So you want to do an evaluation with an NGO – where do you begin?” Development Impact, 15 April, 2011. *** If you want to do a randomized field experiment ***

Presentation of your research (either in a seminar or in a paper)

Levine (undated) "David Levine's Cheap Advice for Presenting Results": This is very useful mainly forempirical researchers.

Davis (undated) "What Makes for a Successful Paper and Seminar?": A good guideline for how to organize an introduction to your research results.

Seminar Presentation

Pischke (undated) “How to make slides” (MS Powerpoint file)

Jackson (1998) “Notes on Presenting a Paper” - As the author is a theorist, this note is more useful when you present theory papers.

Hansen (2007b) "Job Market Seminar": This is written for job market candidates, but it applies to all seminar presentations.

Hansen (2007c) "Seminar Slides": This is again written for job market candidates, but it's useful for any presentation by economists.

Cox (2000) "The "Big 5" and Other Ideas for Presentations"

Chapter 2 of Thomson (2001) A Guide for the Young Economist (MIT Press) - useful for theoreticalresearchers

Bandiera, Besley, Burgess, and Ghatak (2005) "EC501 Development and Growth PhD Seminar: Guidelines for Presentation: Although this is meant for PhD students in the field of development economics, it applies to any (at least applied microeconomic) field students.

Cochrane (2005) "Writing Tips for Ph.D. Students," Section 4 (pp.11-2)

Kehoe (2001) "Student Lunch Seminar: Tips on preparing for a presentation: This seems written for PhD students at University College of London.

Varian (1997) "How to Build an Economic Model in Your Spare Time" - Section 8 offers tips for seminar presentation (mainly for theory papers).

Writing a paper

Glaeser (2003) "How to write a (low-brow or applied) theory paper"

Dixit (1998) ''My System of Work (Not!)'' in Michael Szenberg ed. Passion and Craft: How Economists Work (University of Michigan Press). - See pages 9 and 10.

Cochrane (2005) "Writing Tips for Ph.D. Students," Sections 1 and 2 (pp.1-9) - A bit radical but the former JPE editor has a lot of points. It contains grammatical advice as well. For theory-oriented economists, this may not be very appropriate, though.

Chapter 1 of Thomson (2001) A Guide for the Young Economist (MIT Press) - useful for theoreticalresearchers. The chapter is a revised version of Thomson (1999) "The Young Person's Guide to Writing Economic Theory" (Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 37, No. 1 (March 1999), pp. 157-183).

Kremer (undated) "Writing Papers: A Checklist" - As the author does both theoretical and empirical works, this should be relevant for all researchers.

Lynne Kiesling (2003) "Writing Guidelines for Economics" - Rather grammatical advice for writing an economics paper.

Varian (1997) "How to Build an Economic Model in Your Spare Time" - Sections 9 to 11 offers tips for writing papers.

Attending a conference...

Hargittai (2009a) “The Conference Scene” Inside Higher Ed - How to choose which conference to attend.

Hargittai (2009b) “Conference Do’s and Don’t’s” Inside Higher Ed - What to do during a conference other than presenting your work and listening to other people’s presentation.

Blattman (2010) “The discussant’s art” - if you serve a role of a discussant in a conference.

Going on the job market...

Cawley (2011) "A Guide and Advice for Economists on the U.S. Junior Academic Job Market (2011-2012 Edition)" IZA Discussion Paper no. 5984 - The "official" guide of the job market. It tends to focus on middle-ranked US departments. For those who seek jobs at top departments or outside the US, see some of the other guides below as well.

Job market candidates at Department of Economics at U of Chicago (2007) "Economics Job Market Advice" - Tips for getting a job at European universities (from the viewpoint of those in the US), litigation consulting and finance sector, and liberal arts colleges are the unique to this guide.

LSE Department of Economics (2005) "Getting an Academic Job" - very minimal description of the job market for economics PhD graduates. Useful if you are prospective or first-to-third year PhD students. Its recommendation of going as many job market seminars as possible and meeting with any visitors from other universities is very true.

Economics Department at Harvard University (every year) "Information for Graduate Students on the Job Market" --- This website provides useful pieces of information on the job market though some may be relevant only for very smart students like those at Harvard. Each year it is renewed. Keep an eye on this webpage as the job market process moves on during autumn. (It gives me an impression that the Department's support for job market candidates is more generous than any other universities even though their candidates have a very high probability of getting a good job in the first place...)

Bruce Hansen (2007a) "UW Economics Job Placement Information 2007-2008" --- Written by Wisconsin-Madison's placement director in year 2007/2008. I think it contains many pieces of information unavailable in the other documents listed here and organizes a wide range of information in probably the most structured way.

Roger Noll (2005) "Department of Economics Ph.D. Placement Guide" - a job market guide for PhD candidates at Stanford University

Robert Hall (2001) "Department of Economics Job Placement, 2001-2002 Season" - a job market guide for PhD candidates at Stanford University.

Conlin and Dickert (undated) "Job Market Tips"

Laibson (2003) "Job Market Advice" - This is a message sent to job market candidates at Harvard University

Levine (undated) "David Levine's Cheap Advice for Going on the Job Market"

House, Weir, and Fafchamps (2002) "Getting a Job: Tips for Oxford DPhil Graduates" - The first few pages describe US job markets from the viewpoint of outsiders, something taken for granted in other job market guides. This also guide offers information on European job markets as well though it is now slightly outdated because of initiatives by Royal Economic Society (launched since last year) and by European Economic Association (launched this year).

Kartik (2004) "Tips for success at the AEA Meeting Job Market Interview" - written for UC San Diego job market candidates (note this is a MS Word file). Valerie A. Ramey hosts a website where you can find other pieces of advice by the 2003/4 academic year job market candidates based on their experience.

"Navigating the Job Market", CSWEP Newsletter, Fall 2007. (See pages 3 to 8)

After becoming an assistant professor...

Mankiw (2007) "Advice for New Junior Faculty" - His most important advice seems to be "Do not start a blog."

Dixit (1998) ''My System of Work (Not!)'' in Michael Szenberg ed. Passion and Craft: How Economists Work (University of Michigan Press).

Levine (undated) "David Levine's Cheap Advice for Starting as a New Faculty"

Hamermesh (1992) "The Young Economist's Guide to Professional Etiquette," Journal of Economic Perspectives, 6(1): 169-179.

Hamermesh (undated) "Top 10 Tips for Jump-Starting Your Career" - Probably an updated version of Hamermesh (1992).

Athey (2007) "Negotiating Senior Job Offers," CSWEP Newsletter, Winter 2007, pp. 10-13.

How to write a referee report

De Janvry and Sadoulet (2004) "Guidelines for Referee Reports" - This document was prepared for PhD students in a development economics course where their assignment is to write a mock referee report. It's still useful for those who write a real referee report. It's biased towards refreeing an empirical paper, though.

Chapter 3 of Thomson (2001) A Guide for the Young Economist (MIT Press) - Perhaps biased towards refereeing a theoretical paper.

Pages 177-179 of Hamermesh (1992) "The Young Economist's Guide to Professional Etiquette,"Journal of Economic Perspectives, 6(1): 169-179.

Hamermesh (1994) "Facts and Myths about Refereeing," Journal of Economic Perspectives, 8(1): 153-163. - This is not about how to write a referee report, but worth reading.

Özler and McKenzie (2012) “Q&A with Larry Katz, editor of QJE” Development Impact, January 4, 2012. - See Larry Katz’s answer to the second question. NEW!!

McKenzie (2012) “How much to referee and how to do it?” Development Impact, January 15, 2012.NEW!!

McKenzie and Özler (2012) “A Q&A with the editor of the WBER, Alain de Janvry and Elisabeth Sadoulet” Development Impact, February 5, 2012. - See Q&A no.7. NEW!!

How to publish your paper

Moffitt (2011) “Getting Published in Economics Journals” CSWEP Newsletter, Spring 2011, pp. 4-5, 10. - A former AER editor offers tips for publishing papers. In the same issue of CSWEP Newsletter, there are some other articles on tips to publish a paper.

Creedy (2005) "From Manuscripts to Publication: A Brief Guide for Economists" University of Melbourne Department of Economics Research Paper no. 934. (HT: Chris Blattman)

Hamermesh (200?) "How to Publish in a Top Journal"

Özler and McKenzie (2012) “Q&A with Larry Katz, editor of QJE” Development Impact, January 4, 2012. - See Larry Katz’s answer to the second and third questions. I guess the most important piece of advice is: “Young scholars should NOT submit a paper to a top journal too soon.” NEW!!

How to apply for research grants

McKenzie (2012) “Tips for writing impact evaluation grant proposals.” Development Impact, 13 February 2012. - If you need money to conduct field randomized control trials. NEW!!

Jackson and Razzolini (2003) “Postcards from the NSF” - Although this piece of writing is about the National Science Foundation, many points should be applicable to any research grant schemes. It includes advice for how to write a research proposal.

When writing a textbook...

Varian (1997) "How to Build an Economic Model in Your Spare Time" - Sections 12 offers tips for writing a textbook, for which the author is famous.

Mankiw (undated) "My Rules of Thumb" - Rule no.4 talks a bit about writing textbooks, for which the author is famous for.

When approached by a journalist...

Hamermesh (2004) "Maximizing the Substance in the Soundbite: A Media Guide for Economists",Journal of Economic Education - When you are interviewed by a journalist...

After becoming tenured...

Hall (2009) “Managing Your Career as an Economist after Tenure” CSWEP Newsletter, Winter 2009.

Hamermesh (1993) "Professional Etiquette for Mature Economist", American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 83(2), pp.34-8.

When becoming an editor of a journal...

McAfee (2009) “Edifying Editing,” The American Economist, forthcoming.

When becoming the Department Chair

Harrison (undated) “Mark Harrison’s Survival Guide for Department Chairs”