As partial fulfillment of my responsibility, I will try to introduce a series of good economics papers periodically in the next few months. Selection of the papers will follow the principles listed below:
(i) interesting
(ii) not too technical
(iii) recent
(iv) accessible/downloadable
The first two papers are about how to write good economic papers.
Title: How to Build an Economic Model in Your Spare Time
Author: Hal R. Varian
Source: http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~hal/Papers/how.pdf
Question: how to write an economic paper?
Ideas:
1. Look for ideas in the world, not in the journals.
2. First make your model as simple as possible, then generalize it.
3. Look at the literature later, not sooner.
4. Model your paper after your seminar.
5. Stop when you’ve made your point.
Another paper is about how the correct format to write an economic paper:
Title: The young person's guide to writing economic theory
Author: William Thomson
Source: Journal of Economic Literature; Nashville; Mar 1999
<A href="/UserFiles/2006-12/2/200612218562250.jpg
To get the paper:
1. Right click the above link and download the file 123.jpg
2. Rename the file to 123.pdf
Abstract:
Numerous recommendations are listed for writers of mathematical and economic papers, including:
1. Show that what you did is interesting and has not been done before.
2. Do not forget the process by which you made your discovery.
3. Learn from your errors.
4. Choose notation that is easily recognizable.
5. Choose mnemonic abbreviations for assumptions and properties.
6. Do not let the reader guess or infer from the context what your inequality symbols mean.
7. When introducing a novel definition, give illustrative examples.
8. Write definitions in logical sequences.
9. Name your concepts carefully.
10. Do not confuse functions with the values they take.
11. A certain amount of redundancy is useful, but do not overdo it.
