fail… and other things Ive learned from (trying to do).pptVIP

Most projects fail… and other things I’ve learned from (trying to do) empirical work Amy Finkelstein January 12, 2006 Purpose Graduate school is well-structured to teach you: Economics i.e. What are the interesting and important questions? Technical skills i.e. How to answer them But what about the process of doing (or trying to do) research? This is a semi-structured list of some tips I wish someone had told me…. Disclaimer This presentation is not yet rated. The opinions expressed here are not officially endorsed by the MIT faculty, the American Economics Association, or anyone else Viewer discretion is advised. The bottom line 1. It is hard to do good research for everyone 2. Research is not a solo process Talk about your ideas with people early and often 3. Most “projects” fail The key is to triage efficiently Two key steps early in the process Coming up with ideas 2. Triaging your ideas Step 1: Coming up with ideas All (good) research starts with a question that is interesting Can you explain to others why it’s interesting and exciting? Your peers and professors Non economists Your family Non-economist friends (if any) Are you interested in this question? If you are not interested and excited in your project, how can you possibly expect anyone else to be? And you will certainly not enjoying working on it for many years! All topics need good motivations Papers should be motivated by broad, interesting, and/ or important issues, although the specific problem you end of working on may be narrow and technical This will keep you (and others) motivated and interested Write down the motivation so you remember it and look back at it from time to time Keep adding to it Example 1: Development Broad question: How to reduce corruption in developing countries? Specific project: How do we get good measures of corruption? Example 2: Public Finance Broad question: should the government stay out of insurance markets? Narrow, technical paper: how do we des