tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27124751829536507252024-03-14T01:49:22.999-04:00Delia's Guide To Doing EconomicsDeliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08124179675256633897noreply@blogger.comBlogger275125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2712475182953650725.post-69089161137221515332024-02-16T13:47:00.003-05:002024-02-16T13:47:29.992-05:00How to Make Nice Bar Graphs in Stata <p>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. </p><p>Here are some helpful tips on how: <a href="https://medium.com/the-stata-gallery/advanced-bar-graphs-in-stata-part-1-means-with-confidence-intervals-2dd9d3b399b4">Part 1</a> and <a href="https://medium.com/the-stata-gallery/advanced-bar-graphs-in-stata-part-2-visualizing-relationships-between-discrete-variables-7afb8cb5aaf2">Part 2</a>. Thank you, <a href="https://medium.com/@jvk221">John Kane</a> for putting this together and to <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/impactevaluations/weekly-links-february-16-7000-rcts-better-bar-graphs-dating-apps-and-platform">David Mackenzie</a> for finding it. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjRa4JYjA4--mV6veMQQreWLDCAPk-rqN3DTW0D7j0LO6vENRlbSP7QvuC4ATfdsRygTpFZznJlG8I4FEHliPhTd1vltQsOxLRfdtDovxOaae63Gfm_DOIiJMKOYLt0Zi_MWyj03TZLBASUdzT_jllqOAXUSz3PKyCQ5S-ntF9ZBXadoeWG_vTHt5EDsOpZ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="1100" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjRa4JYjA4--mV6veMQQreWLDCAPk-rqN3DTW0D7j0LO6vENRlbSP7QvuC4ATfdsRygTpFZznJlG8I4FEHliPhTd1vltQsOxLRfdtDovxOaae63Gfm_DOIiJMKOYLt0Zi_MWyj03TZLBASUdzT_jllqOAXUSz3PKyCQ5S-ntF9ZBXadoeWG_vTHt5EDsOpZ" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p>Deliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08124179675256633897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2712475182953650725.post-81619392654771993782024-02-09T13:58:00.002-05:002024-02-09T13:58:21.110-05:00To Post-Doc or not to Post-Doc. Is That the Question? <p>David McKenzie provides <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/impactevaluations/post-docs-development-economics-are-becoming-increasingly-common-advice-those">useful advice</a> not only on whether or not to do a post-doc but also best practices if you do decide to do one. </p><p>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. </p><p>Good luck, JMCs! </p>Deliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08124179675256633897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2712475182953650725.post-55609096741033869612024-01-16T13:56:00.002-05:002024-01-16T13:56:30.905-05:00Potentially My Most Useful Post of the Year? Decade?: AI for Economists, Prompts and Resources<p>We hear a lot about the dangers of AI (and these are real!), but we do not hear enough about how useful LLMs can be. Check out these <a href="https://sites.google.com/view/lastunen/ai-for-economists">prompts and other resources</a> for use with LLMs made available by <a href="https://sites.google.com/view/lastunen/home?authuser=0">Jesse Lastunen</a>. And do share in the comments if you discover any additional useful prompts. </p><p><br /></p><p>H/T: <a href="https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2024/01/prompts-for-economists.html">Marginal Revolution</a> </p>Deliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08124179675256633897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2712475182953650725.post-24406787871025573742024-01-05T11:48:00.003-05:002024-01-05T11:48:38.997-05:00Cool Data Alert: Child Penalties Across Countries<p style="text-align: justify;">The website describes it like this: "The Child Penalty Atlas maps how the arrival of a child affects the careers of men and women across the globe." I recommend playing with the map a bit. You can see for most countries in the world, the child penalty in employment, the gender gap in employment, and the fraction of the gender employment gap explained by the child penalty.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">How many new papers idea using these data can you come up with? 1-2-3, go! (UConn students, feel free to come discuss your ideas with me). </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Here is the website: <a href="https://childpenaltyatlas.org">https://childpenaltyatlas.org</a>/. </p>Deliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08124179675256633897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2712475182953650725.post-44941326910429717882023-08-02T11:59:00.003-04:002023-08-02T11:59:16.071-04:00Cool Data Alert: Aging <p>At this summer's <a href="https://www.nber.org/conferences/si-2023-aging">NBER SI Aging</a>, Kosali Simon introduced new data from all over the world that can be used to study the economics of aging. She just posted her <a href="https://indiana-my.sharepoint.com/:p:/g/personal/simonkos_iu_edu/ERVkS68-hydBrJXkzytIGj4BujYHKZOD5GIL7hhxNzF-Eg?rtime=J7JCF2yT20g">slides online</a>. </p><p>Thank you, Kosali. UConn PhD students, start exploring and let me know if anything inspires you. </p>Deliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08124179675256633897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2712475182953650725.post-89814307409834280002023-07-16T16:01:00.001-04:002023-07-16T16:01:39.637-04:00How to be a Good Discussant<p>Your third year paper was accepted for presentation at a conference. Congratulations! But now you've been asked to discuss someone else's paper at that conference. What should you say during those 5-10 minutes? Every single thought you have on the paper? NO!!! </p><p>See <a href="https://chrisblattman.com/blog/2010/02/22/the-discussants-art/">Chris Blattman's The Discussant's Art</a>, an oldie but goodie. </p><p>The most important thing to keep in mind: Your discussion is mostly for the conference participants, not the authors. You want to help the audience better understand and appreciate the presentation they heard. Speak to them! </p><p>Of course, you've read the paper and have lots of ideas. Absolutely share these ideas with the author! They can be very valuable and appreciated, even the "you have a typo on p. 18"-type comments. But do this one-on-one with the author. Ideally, meet for coffee during the conference. Otherwise, send the detailed comments over email after the conference. </p><p>But the discussion is mostly for the audience. Keep it short but profound. :) </p><p>---</p><p><i>Chris Blattman's Tips Copy-Pasted here for convenience: </i></p><p><i>1. Start by telling people why they should care. It is seldom obvious. What’s the big question, and what’s at stake if the paper gets it right or wrong?</i></p><p><i>2. Then summarize the paper. Break it down differently than the presenter. Pretend you are explaining it to your grandmother. Or, rather, your adult-attention-deficit-disorder grandmother. Keep it short.</i></p><p><i>3. Say more with less. Mathematically, everything you say after your best point lowers the average quality of your comment. Pick your three best points, say them briefly, then stop talking.</i></p><p><i>4. Now, say even less. Those three comments? Write out, in bullets, exactly what you plan to say. Now cross out half. What you think will take eight minutes will take fifteen. Bring it back to eight.</i></p><p><i>5. Be constructive. A colleague once said to me: “I like it when people find problems with my paper, but I like solutions more.” Finding solutions makes you think (and displays it too).</i></p><p><i>6. Don’t discuss the small stuff. Write your little comments down, and later give them to the author. Don’t bore the audience with footnotes and trivia.</i></p><p><i>7. Feel free to entertain. A discussant need not merely list ideas. You can weave in an anecdote, or frame a point with a story. At least speak from a personal point of view, not a monotone benevolent overlord.</i></p><p><i>8. Have fun, don’t make fun. If you use humor, let it not be at the expense of anyone but yourself.</i></p><p><i>9. Spell it out for us. Tell us why your comments matter. Say precisely what we learn.</i></p><p><i>10. Aim for profound. The best discussants rotate my brain 90 degrees. They reframe the problem, or propose a novel idea. I can’t tell you how to be deep. I seldom succeed myself. For me, a few things usually help. I read the paper, walk away for a day or two, then return. I ask myself questions: Do I think about a big question differently now? What convinces me, and what would convince me more? Where should the field be going?</i></p>Deliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08124179675256633897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2712475182953650725.post-37530388426698897922023-07-16T15:39:00.002-04:002023-07-16T15:39:43.404-04:00More on Shift-Share Instruments via Borusyak, Hull and Jaravel<p>It is tricky to keep up with the econometrics literature on shift-share instruments. But it's important. <a href="https://www.cemmap.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/CWP1223-Design-based-identification-with-formula-instruments-A-Review.pdf" target="_blank">Here</a> is a review paper written by Borusyak, Hull and Jaravel. </p><p><a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/impactevaluations/weekly-links-june-30-climate-more-climate-virtual-networking-pays-disruptive?cid=SHR_BlogSiteShare_EN_EXT">David McKenzie</a> highlights the following: “Identification in the general case, for arbitrary formulas and designs, follows from simple adjustments based on the expected instrument: the average value of the formula across counterfactual sets of shocks, drawn from the specified assignment process. Specifically, OVB is avoided by either adding the expected instrument as a control or by using a recentered instrument which subtracts the expected instrument from the original formula. Controlling for or recentering by the expected instrument is generally necessary for identification with formula instruments, absent auxiliary assumptions on the exogeneity of shock exposure.”</p>Deliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08124179675256633897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2712475182953650725.post-69820683361111311682023-05-18T10:02:00.001-04:002023-05-18T10:02:09.452-04:00Cool Data Alert: Immigration Policies Related to Low-Education Immigrants in 31 Countries, 1783-2010<p><a href="https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/XTSNW0">Here</a> is the data. And the official description: </p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Immigration policy for low-skill immigrants, 1783-2010, for the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Kuwait, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p>Deliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08124179675256633897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2712475182953650725.post-72435505388375427032021-10-05T16:52:00.002-04:002021-10-05T16:53:58.601-04:00Stata Tip: Creating Quick and Beautiful Tables of Descriptive Statistics with Asdoc <p>Open up Stata right now and write this in the command window: </p><p><i>ssc install asdoc, replace</i></p><p><i>help asdoc</i></p><p>Upload your favorite data set and start making beautiful tables of descriptive statistics! It's like tabstat, but you will have no additional formatting to do. No need to copy-paste from the Stata window into excel. No need to spend hours making tables beautiful. Impress your coauthors and advisors with these beautiful tables even for just preliminary analyses! Read more <a href="http://fintechprofessor.com/2018/02/23/use-asdoc-basic-example/">here</a>. </p><p>You're welcome! </p><p>I'll take the credit for discovering this, but thank you <a href="https://fintechprofessor.com/2018/01/31/asdoc/">StataProfessor</a> for making it.</p>Deliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08124179675256633897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2712475182953650725.post-12352502842747910882021-07-07T13:56:00.001-04:002021-07-07T13:56:25.524-04:00All About Robustness Checks: "Do Not Run a Regression Just Because You Can!"<p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://deryugina.com/">Tatyana Deryugina</a> provides some excellent tips on how to choose robustness checks for a paper <a href="http://deryugina.com/some-tips-for-robustness-checks-and-empirical-analysis-in-general/">here</a>. Running way too many regressions is a typical mistake I see many really smart and hardworking graduate students make. It's funny that she starts the blog entry with the wise words of her advisor, "You need to think more and do less," because I still remember my advisor saying something very similar: "In general, there is no good substitute for thought." (In case you're wondering, we did not have the same advisor.) </p><p style="text-align: justify;">So the key is to think about which robustness checks (or tests for heterogeneity or placebo tests) are most important for telling your story. I'm all for playing around with the data when you first start a project to get some sense of how things are. Readers of this blog will know that I'm a big advocate of tables of descriptive statistics (with max's and min's--this can help you find coding issues) as well as pretty pictures. But when you are at the end stages of a project, it's important to think carefully about which robustness checks to include in the paper. Tatyana provides an excellent guide to help you through the thought process. I also really like her advice about choosing the preferred specification--not just in terms of which controls to include but also the baseline sample: </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>"Your preferred specification should be based on the most natural sample of treated and control units for your study (e.g., counties in hurricane-prone states). This will often be the sample that includes the largest number of treated units and enough high-quality control units to estimate a credible counterfactual. For example, try not to pare down your control units so much that you have 3 times as many treated as control units. At the other extreme, it is also unlikely that having a sample with 10 times as many control as treated units will be more useful than something closer to a 1-to-1 ratio. If you have a panel dataset, your preferred specification should be based on a balanced panel."</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>Deliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08124179675256633897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2712475182953650725.post-53532844642252263702021-06-29T06:58:00.004-04:002021-06-29T06:58:35.633-04:00Cool Data Alert: Refugee Resettlement Data 1975-2018<p>You can download data on 2.5 million individuals from 121 origin countries that entered the U.S. between 1975 and 2008. Refugees are recorded at the U.S. state and county levels, and several individual characteristics are also provided. Browse through the website <a href="https://www.refugeeresettlementdata.com/data.html">here</a>, and let me know if you come up with any brilliant ideas for research! </p>Deliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08124179675256633897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2712475182953650725.post-27837170270019542342021-04-24T21:35:00.004-04:002021-04-24T21:36:32.573-04:00How to Prepare to Meet with a Seminar Speaker<p style="text-align: justify;">Seminar speakers--regardless of how famous they are or how many papers they've written on your favorite topics--are still just people who want to hear about your work, and help out if they can. Hopefully they conversation will flow naturally. But I still think it's worthwhile to prepare a bit before these meetings, and I recently found a perfect little template to help you do just that. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.joshua-goodman.com/">Joshua Goodman</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/JoshuaSGoodman/status/1385326424920363011">tweeted</a> about a <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/y0d12xpa6pkxvxi/Final%20project%20presentation%20slide.pptx">template </a>he came up with to help his students describe their final projects in five minutes. I think it's excellent! What a great way to think about all of your projects! </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-eLXRYCl3Mkc/YITHFEzCKNI/AAAAAAAABF0/08Kq7MQ6uIAy1htz1JF-AiPdvGh6ppOiACLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="369" data-original-width="680" height="217" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-eLXRYCl3Mkc/YITHFEzCKNI/AAAAAAAABF0/08Kq7MQ6uIAy1htz1JF-AiPdvGh6ppOiACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h217/image.png" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p><br /></p>Deliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08124179675256633897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2712475182953650725.post-84564502379124086882021-04-08T15:29:00.002-04:002021-04-08T15:29:53.569-04:00Cool Data Alert: Immigration and Ancestry Instruments <p>Hooray for researchers who come up with new instruments. An extra special hoooray for those who make those instruments readily available and easy to use for other researchers. And even more points if the instruments can be used to study immigration. </p><p>See it all <a href="https://www.immigrationshock.com/home">here</a>. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7KpeVw7eq7w/YG9ZegOB_NI/AAAAAAAABFM/QNl3CdXsY1YuEupVBcl7O4ULVO7L2dragCLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="470" data-original-width="639" height="297" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7KpeVw7eq7w/YG9ZegOB_NI/AAAAAAAABFM/QNl3CdXsY1YuEupVBcl7O4ULVO7L2dragCLcBGAsYHQ/w404-h297/image.png" width="404" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p>Deliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08124179675256633897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2712475182953650725.post-82103419256884645542021-02-28T16:40:00.001-05:002021-02-28T16:40:23.555-05:00Crosswalks between Different Levels of Geography in the U.S. <p style="text-align: justify;">Imagine you have geographic information at the county level in one data set but you want to merge in some additional information that is only available at the MSA level (or you have MSA in your data but want to merge in state level variables, etc.) What to do? Check out <a href="https://mcdc.missouri.edu/applications/geocorr2014.html">Geocorr 2014: Geographic Correspondence Engine</a> provided by the Missouri Census Data Center. Super easy to use! </p><p style="text-align: justify;">H/T: <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/ericbrunner1/">Eric Brunner</a>. </p>Deliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08124179675256633897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2712475182953650725.post-80323870411186634972021-02-21T20:38:00.000-05:002021-02-21T20:38:02.977-05:00How to Write an Abstract <p>David Evans provides a handy dandy formula <a href="https://www.cgdev.org/blog/how-write-abstract-your-development-economics-paper">here</a>. Here's an exercise for you: Find the 5-7 most closely related papers to yours and diagram their abstracts. Do they use any of the formulas David describes? A different formula? Do you see a difference by the quality of the journal they're published in. </p><p>Describe what you find in the comments below! </p>Deliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08124179675256633897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2712475182953650725.post-18076200562022562652021-01-04T15:38:00.003-05:002021-01-04T15:38:37.102-05:00Virtual Interviews and Job Talks <p style="text-align: justify;"> It's a whole new world with interviews and job talks being conducted online. Your advisors probably have little to no experience with this and so won't be able to help so much. Luckily, there's twitter and very helpful people (ie, <a href="https://twitter.com/Alicia_Plemmons/">Alicia Plemmons</a>) who so generously provide helpful advice on twitter. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Check out <a href="https://twitter.com/Alicia_Plemmons/status/1285304430422749186">this thread</a> on preparing for interviews. My favorite: practice your talk with a BUNCH of friends on whatever platform you'll be using for the interviews. Increase internet speed if necessary. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://twitter.com/Alicia_Plemmons/status/1287912047792082944">This one</a> is on the virtual job talk. My favorite there: Build in breaks. Stop to ask people if they have questions. During a face to face talk, people feel more comfortable interrupting. Also, you'd be able to see if a person had a question by looking at facial expressions. Online, you may just have to stop and ask.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">She also has threads on <a href="https://twitter.com/Alicia_Plemmons/status/1290518814715772930">job market documents</a> as well as <a href="https://twitter.com/Alicia_Plemmons/status/1300963393038360577">networking</a>, but I haven't looked at them carefully just yet. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Good luck to all of you on the job market! </p>Deliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08124179675256633897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2712475182953650725.post-66213113447054574482020-12-18T15:02:00.001-05:002020-12-18T15:02:09.016-05:00Stata Tip: How to Clean String Variables <p>I know, I know. It's been a while since you've heard from me. You know how some people have been super productive during the pandemic? I haven't been one of them. Oh well. The good news is that I survived teaching my first all-online semester. I submitted grades yesterday! To all of the students who attended the classes live this semester..and especially to those of you who put your camera on every now and then, thank you! To those of you couldn't, do stop by my office sometime when we're back on campus to say hello. ;) </p><p>And now, to get things restarted on this blog, I thought we'd go with a Stata tip on how to clean string variables. Sure, sometimes we are given nice, ready to go data. Other times, not so much. For example, imagine that sometimes "Delia Furtado" appears as "Delia furtado" or "delia furtado" or "Delia%&Furtado". What to do? See <a href="https://www.csae.ox.ac.uk/materials/coderscorner/1141/coderscornermt20week8sp-v4.pdf" target="_blank">Verena Wiedemann's Stata tricks</a>, posted on <a href="https://www.csae.ox.ac.uk/coders-corner/coders-corner">Oxford's Coders' Corner </a>(h/t <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/impactevaluations/weekly-links-december-18-code-cleaning-angus-aid-how-spend-holidays-and-more" target="_blank">David Mackenzie's blog</a>). </p><p>Yes, you could try to find these "by hand," but the more you do automatically, the less likely you are to make mistakes! </p>Deliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08124179675256633897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2712475182953650725.post-10685827474585343512020-10-25T20:32:00.001-04:002020-10-25T20:32:05.771-04:00Cool Data Alert: Historical Data <p>I haven't done any work using historical data, but I must say I am intrigued! <a href="http://ftp.iza.org/dp13788.pdf">This IZA paper</a> describes some of the most commonly used data sources (well, by economists). They are broadly classified as geographical data,
ethnographic data (really cool!!!) and Censuses. For each group, the authors "outline the issues they raise and also point out which methodological advances allow economists to overcome or minimize these problems." </p><p>If you're a history buff and you're looking for a dissertation topic, take a peek. </p>Deliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08124179675256633897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2712475182953650725.post-950311440593943072020-10-15T17:25:00.005-04:002020-10-15T17:26:21.600-04:00Stata Tip: Quick and Easy Code for Making Plots <p>Yes, I've said this. A picture is worth a thousand words. Or in our case, a picture is worth a thousand numbers in a table. The DIME folks at the World Bank have just <a href="https://worldbank.github.io/stata-visual-library/">put together a super useful resource</a> on how to quickly code all of the different types of plots you may want to make. Click on the you plot you want to make and up comes the code that is used to make it! No need to to spend hours googling how to do this for each potential plot. What an amazing public good! </p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-xsWSNSPig84/X4i9eRlbRCI/AAAAAAAABB8/yaReMVkWuGAtIGTEnMp29oZmQnAjCpgGwCLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="465" data-original-width="1137" height="164" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-xsWSNSPig84/X4i9eRlbRCI/AAAAAAAABB8/yaReMVkWuGAtIGTEnMp29oZmQnAjCpgGwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h164/image.png" width="400" /></a></div><br />P.S.I put the the pictures up just to make my blog pretty. To get the actual code, click on the link above. Or <a href="https://worldbank.github.io/stata-visual-library/">here</a>. Deliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08124179675256633897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2712475182953650725.post-73521980656555910012020-10-10T10:54:00.005-04:002020-10-10T10:54:42.522-04:0010 Commandments for How to Give a Seminar <p style="text-align: justify;">Kjetil Storesletten gave a talk with the commandments for giving a seminar--maybe specifically a job talk. You can see the slides <a href="https://www.eeassoc.org/doc/upload/Ten_Commandments_JM_Presentation_KS20190116211403.pdf" target="_blank">here</a> and watch the talk <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKdsYrbSBIM">here</a>. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Stating the question you are asking very clearly and at the beginning of the talk is so important (Commandment 2). Yes, this is of course always important but maybe especially important during an economics talk so that you don't keep getting interrupted with questions that are not really relevant to the question you are trying to answer. The fewer of those "out there" questions you get, the more likely you will be to have well prepared answers to the questions (see Commandment 10). </p><p style="text-align: justify;">I would also emphasize Commandment 4: Show the value-added of your paper. Sometimes newbies want to 'over-emphasize' their work by 'de-emphasizing' prior related work. This is not only dishonest, but you may find yourself fighting unnecessary battles. For example, if some well-respected economist has already used your identification strategy to study some other outcome and that paper is now published in a solid journal, then your audience may not make you work as hard to defend that broad identification strategy. Instead, they will focus their questions on why it may (or may not) be appropriate for your particular application. This is probably a much easier battle to fight and it is the battle you should be prepared for. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Good luck! </p>Deliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08124179675256633897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2712475182953650725.post-70788738551668520532020-10-08T17:33:00.002-04:002020-10-08T17:33:23.482-04:00Stata Tip: Best Advice on Writing Dofiles <p>Yes, I know you're excited to see the results of your regression. Go ahead and be sloppy with your coding. You probably will make mistakes. You'll go back to fix them. Maybe that's fine. But at some point, go through <a href="https://www.povertyactionlab.org/resource/data-cleaning-and-management" target="_blank">these J-Pal instructions</a> and guidelines on how to clean your data. The big rules: </p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Document decisions</li><li>Never overwrite the original/raw data file</li></ol><div>Other gems include: Look at the distribution of every variable you use in your analysis (do you have 500 year olds? Are the missing values set to 99?) Do you see anything suspicious? The more you know about the data, the better. </div><div><br /></div><div>Also, use Stata's help command to learn more about "mvdecode" and "subinstr." And remember to rename variables so that you can tell what they are by looking at the variable (hint: a dummy variable called "male" is more helpful than one called "sex"). Label the values so that you don't have to keep going back to the codebook. </div><p></p>Deliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08124179675256633897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2712475182953650725.post-83625428567327843082020-10-06T13:49:00.004-04:002020-10-06T13:49:47.578-04:00Message to My Students <p style="text-align: justify;">I just saw <a href="https://twitter.com/markahix/status/1313163038829109251">this on twitter</a>, and it is absolutely true. I forget to say it, I know, but I am very often very impressed with your work. So impressed that I want to help make it as great as it can possibly be. Please do keep sending me your paper drafts. Do the best job that you can. Fix the typos you catch, and remember to include a date and page numbers. But remember that I don't expect perfection in your drafts. After all, they are <i>drafts</i>. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-PT_XYd2y0fI/X3yuGxioyPI/AAAAAAAABBU/MGpAdiUlCUMew4P9VeOEutJn-kzfqFUVACLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="490" data-original-width="679" height="289" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-PT_XYd2y0fI/X3yuGxioyPI/AAAAAAAABBU/MGpAdiUlCUMew4P9VeOEutJn-kzfqFUVACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h289/image.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Deliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08124179675256633897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2712475182953650725.post-13395431829661904552020-09-25T09:23:00.002-04:002020-09-25T09:23:14.789-04:00On Nonacademic Jobs <p style="text-align: justify;"> Yes, I know that most of you decided to get a PhD specifically because you had an academic career in mind. But keep in mind that while you were all exposed to academic careers to some degree while in college, you might not know about the many fulfilling jobs you might have (with that PhD in hand) in the private sector, government sector, etc. I will not tell you which is best for you, but I will tell you to seriously consider all of these options when sending out applications. Read about what everyday life looks like in the different types of jobs. Think about how to prepare for the job market if you're particularly excited about a nonacademic career. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In this morning's blog entry, David Mackenzie points us to many different and useful resources focusing on jobs for development economists. Have a look <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/impactevaluations/weekly-links-september-25-finding-job-outside-academia-big-data-measure-mobility?cid=SHR_BlogSiteShare_EN_EXT">here</a>.</p>Deliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08124179675256633897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2712475182953650725.post-9709918666359335872020-09-17T16:33:00.005-04:002020-09-17T16:38:47.144-04:00Are You Really Controlling for that Variable? <p style="text-align: justify;">Yes, we love RCTs and RDs (and maybe sometimes IVs and difs and difs, I guess), but remember the tried and true way to get at causal estimates is just to good old-fashioned control for omitted variables. From a "research is so cool" perspective, it's quite fascinating to see an estimate of interest drop suddenly in response to adding an important control variable. From an "I won't get this published unless I have those stars" perspective, you often hope this doesn't happen...and when is it least likely to happen? When you're sloppy in constructing those control variables or when the variables themselves only imperfectly measure the true omitted variable. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">So what happens when you add a variable measured with error as a control variable in your model? <a href="http://Supplysideliberal.com">Supplysideliberal.com</a> explains it all <a href="https://blog.supplysideliberal.com/post/2019/10/10/adding-a-variable-measured-with-error-to-a-regression-only-partially-controls-for-that-variable" target="_blank">here</a> with excellent intuition as well as matrix algebra! Who could ask for anything more. I've copy-pasted the important bit here: </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>"Compare the coefficient estimates in a large-sample, ordinary-least-squares, multiple regression with (a) an accurately measured statistical control variable, (b) instead only that statistical control variable measured with error and (c) without the statistical control variable at all. Then all coefficient estimates with the statistical control variable measured with error (b) will be a weighted average of (a) the coefficient estimates with that statistical control variable measured accurately and (c) that statistical control variable excluded. The weight showing how far inclusion of the error-ridden statistical control variable moves the results toward what they would be with an accurate measure of that variable is equal to the fraction of signal in (signal + noise), where “signal” is the variance of the accurately measured control variable that is not explained by variables that were already in the regression, and “noise” is the variance of the measurement error."</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">But now for some practical advice from me: When you add an important control variable to your model, be sure to show its estimated coefficient in the table (vs. just having an X signifying that you controlled for it). Why? If you know that variable is an important omitted variable, but its estimated coefficient is close to zero and not statistically significant, the culprit may be measurement error. If that's the case, then we shouldn't be surprised that adding this poorly measured variable doesn't change the estimated coefficient of interest. On the other hand, if you can show that the control variable has its expected impact on the outcome AND it doesn't budge your estimate of the coefficient of interest, you're probably good! </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Conclusion 1: Minimize measurement error by coding carefully. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Conclusion 2 (copied from the blog): <i>"<span face="proxima-nova" style="background-color: white; color: #424242; font-size: 16px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I strongly encourage everyone reading this to vigorously criticize any researcher who claims to be statistically controlling for something simply by putting a noisy proxy for that thing in a regression. This is wrong. Anyone doing it should be called out, so that we can get better statistical practice and get scientific activities to better serve our quest for the truth about how the world works."</span></i></p>Deliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08124179675256633897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2712475182953650725.post-92181615318218248232020-09-10T15:51:00.001-04:002020-09-10T15:51:12.240-04:00Bellemare's How to Write Applied Papers in Economics<p style="text-align: justify;">I have blogged before about <a href="http://marcfbellemare.com/" target="_blank">Marc Bellemare's</a> advice on how to write an introduction, how to write a conclusion, how to write the parts in between. Well, he's now put it all together in one place and added some additional bells and whistles. You can see it all <a href="http://marcfbellemare.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/BellemareHowToPaperSeptember2020.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">My advice: Read it from beginning to end now. Then, when you're actually writing an introduction, read the section on how to write an introduction again. Have it open while you actually write your introduction. When you have to decide where to send your "finished" paper, have another look at the section on where to send your paper. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Writing a paper is hard. Any paper. Even a really bad paper. This handy guide simplifies the process so it becomes more doable for you. Maybe even better, your papers become more readable for your advisors, editors, referees, and just regular readers. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Good luck!</p><p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Writing Gives Me Too Much Joy to Do It Professionally | by Ryan Fan | Better Marketing | Medium" height="240" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/9184/0*0Vl-yKH0Lk-Webh-" width="320" /></p>Deliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08124179675256633897noreply@blogger.com0