Срок сдачи: четверг, 16:00 по киевскому времени
Объём: до 1200 слов
Why would you care about learning how to write essays? In most jobs you will communicate ideas by putting them on paper in words. In research, you back up these words with graphs, estimates and math. Thus, it is quite important to learn how to put your thoughts in words on paper!
How to write an essay: there are many ways to do it.
Here I will simply cover 4 points:
I Emphesize 2 sources on how to write essays:
1. econscribe.org: Chaubey Varanya, who is running this organisation, educates PhD
students in economics on how to write their thesis.
2. Graff and Birkenstein (2017): They say, I say.
Keep the essay short (up to 1200 words!). Choose a paper, which we discussed in class or find a paper, which you find interesting and which is related to natural resources.
1. Use this paper to construct a short literature review (3 recent papers which are related) ⇒ to get an opinion on the current state of the literature;
2. Based on this literature review get an opinion on where to go next: either question the assumptions made in theory, the data used, the identification suggested or suggest an alternative theoretical mechanism, identification, data to use;
3. Back up your suggestion with logical arguments (no need for a fully fledged model, words or graphs are enough) or with empirical observations (no need for perfect identification, suggestive evidence is enough).
Example: You read Sachs and Warner (2001)
1. it is related to the literature discussed in the same lecture and these papers refer to
many other papers;
2. you understand that the regression they run is badly specified for a variety of
reasons and you decide to see for yourself using a case study;
3. at this point you want to check the question with me;
4. inspired by Smith (2016) you decide to look at the data of a country which happens
to have a resource boom recently, For example, you compare GDP growth in
Azerbaijan to the neighbouring countries without oil during the last oil boom since
2003 (simple version of synthetic control). Thus, you use graphs of GDP growth and
the results in Smith (2016) to make your argument.
Example: You read Corden and Neary (1982)
1. it is related to the literature discussed in the same lecture and these papers refer to
many other papers;
2. you realise that their result is based on the assumption of full employment which is
fixed on the country level and you have strong views on how changing this
assumption will effect the predictions;
3. at this point you want to check the question with me;
4. you use words, math or graphs to explicitly convey your argument, or use empirical
papers (for example: Beine, Coulombe and Vermeulen (2015)) providing evidence on
the questionability of the theoretical assumptions and the consequences.
A suggestive answer to one empirical question, using a simple method.
I A suggestive answer to one theoretical question, using a simple argument.
I A thorough critique of an existing paper (questioning assumptions and/or
identification strategy).
I A comparative appraisal of two contradictory papers by choosing a winner.
I Replicate the core results of an empirical paper, maybe with robustness/placebo
checks or for a different setting or time period.
Note: I do not want you to do just a literature review without providing any evidence
that you have processed the information you have acquired!
Suggested algorithm:
1. start with an existing paper
2. get an idea about the literature
3. develop the argument you want to make
4. check with friends and family that your argument makes sense
5. put it on paper
6. back up your argument (with data and/or theory)
7. write literature review, intro and conclusion
8. rewrite
My rules when choosing a topic (you might add some and drop some):
I choose a topic which makes people think differently.
I choose a topic which is economically important.
I check with other people whether the question makes sense.
I check with other people whether this question is actually doable.
I and most importantly, choose a question which excites you.
