Generating Ideas for Econ Papers

[macbookpro]

Hey all, I am trying to expand on the second section of the guide I'm putting together (see link below), and would like to hear how you all come up with ideas for econ papers/topics. how do you find topics/what throught process generates them? thanks

http://www.urch.com/forums/phd-econo...economics.html (A Student's Guide to Writing Papers in Economics)

[nash12]

This article here by Hal Varian is really interesting and well written. Its titled- How to build an Economic Model in your spare time. I think all you guys about to enter graduate school should read it..

http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~hal/Papers/how.pdf

[Oikos-nomos]

Originally Posted by nash12

This article here by Hal Varian is really interesting and well written. Its titled- How to build an Economic Model in your spare time. I think all you guys about to enter graduate school should read it..

http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~hal/Papers/how.pdf

Excellent article!!! I too think it is cumpulsory reading if you wanna become an academic.

Let me link Krugman's web page, section "Additional biographical info" or something like that: http://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/mememe.html

Frome there, i reccomend you to read How I work, Incidents from my career and Introduction to The Accidental Theorist, but mainly the first one.

I think Krugman's research method is very similar to Varian's, despite they focus on different topics.

Finally, i would like to quote Albert Einstein: "Everthing should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler".
I think this should be seriously taken into account when modelling. And it's just not me i think, but the two economists mentioned before apparently agree.

Hope it helps!

[Golden Rule]

Dixit's essay from Passion and the Craft is also online (this is also the source of the Varian and one of the Krugman essays).