Need Inspiration for a Paper Topic?

Do you need to write a paper for a field course? Are second/third year paper deadlines quickly approaching and every time you think of an interesting question, the necessary data does not exist or there is no exogenous variation or.. We have all been there. My suggestion: Have a peek through this website which compiles information on plausibly exogenous sources of variation. It seems a bit backward, but you may be able to link a right hand side variable from the website with an outcome that you're particularly excited about. Good luck! 

H/T: Treena Goswami 

How to Conference

See this excellent thread with tips on how to conference (thank you, Ben Harrell!). You can think of that as the gold standard for conferencing. You don't have to do it all of it, at least not all of the time. Resting is also important. 

But I can tell you what not to do: Spend the entire time in your hotel room fixing your slides (or writing your discussion) and not participating in the conference at all. A conference is--or at least can be---so much more than your talks. And I'd say try to have fun if you can. Conference travel is one of the big perks of our job. Enjoy them! 

Pedro Sant’Anna’s Difference-in-Differences Checklist

 

Pedro provided the checklist. Scott Cunningham shows us how to go through the checklist, step by step, with Stata code! These guys sure do make it easier for us to do the right thing. Here Scott shows us Step 1. And here is Step 2. Oh, and there's Step 3, too! 

And just this morning, Step 4. 

Cool Data Alert: National Study of Caregiving (NSOC) and More

Here is the information. 

UConn PhD students (and honors students writing theses, etc.)---if you want to work with these data, I'd be interested in serving as your advisor. 

To prospective PhD students--if you want to work with these data, consider applying to the UConn PhD program. I'd love to work with you. 

And I just found more interesting data sets on these issues: 

National Long Term Care Survey (NLTCS)National Long Term Care Survey (NLTCS)

which can be linked with CMS data can be linked with CMS data! 

An Introduction to Event Studies

I thought I had a solid understanding of event studies, sure. But then when you go out to actually do one for a not completely straightforward case (e.g., What if the intensity of "the event" varies? What if there are multiple events per unit?). Have a look at this Journal of Economic Perspectives piece, "An Introductory Guide to Event Study Models," written by Doug Miller. 

H/T David Simon. It's good to have colleagues who know a thing or two about this sort of thing! 

How to Make Nice Bar Graphs in Stata

Sure, you can just show a table, but nobody will remember that or pay much attention to start. Much better to tell your story with a picture. 

Here are some helpful tips on how: Part 1 and Part 2. Thank you, John Kane for putting this together and to David Mackenzie for finding it. 

To Post-Doc or not to Post-Doc. Is That the Question?

David McKenzie provides useful advice not only on whether or not to do a post-doc but also best practices if you do decide to do one.  

My thoughts: Post-docs vary a lot! Some are really just high-skilled RA positions--which is not necessarily bad if you're learning a lot. Others just give you a lot of free time to pursue your own work--which is not necessarily great if you don't have a clear direction for future projects. My point: There is no clear answer to the question of whether it is good or bad to do a post-doc. It really depends on the particular post-doc position you are considering and the non-post-doc position you are giving up or postponing. 

Good luck, JMCs!