I find advice in these readings helpful, but in this document I will rarely repeat anything already addressed in these readings, so make sure you read them.

General-purpose Advice

  • Econ RA Guide
  • Susan Athey, Advice for Applying to Grad School in Economics
  • Jesse Shapiro, Notes on Applying for a PhD in Economics

On Writing Thesis / Research Paper

  • Plamen Nikolov, Writing Tips for Economics Research Papers
    • This is the thesis guide for Harvard Economics thesis students
  • Jesse Shapiro, Four Steps to an Applied Micro Paper
  • Jesse Shapiro, How to Give an Applied Micro Talk: Unauthoritative Notes
  • Deirdre McCloskey, Economical Writing. I don’t consider the full text necessary. A summary should suffice.
  • Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz, The Ten Most Important Rules of Writing Your Job Market Paper

On Coding / Data Work

  • Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse Shapiro, Code and Data for the Social Sciences: A Practitioner’s Guide
  • Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse Shapiro, Internal RA Manual
  • Jonathan Schwabish, An Economist’s Guide to Visualizing Data