Links

This is a collection of links that I’ve started since my first year of college. At the beginning it was for my own guidance, but over time it proved useful for other students getting started in economics, finding out more about economic research, and planning their college experience toward getting in graduate schools. Please feel free to contact me regarding errors or suggestions.

Essentials

link Susan Athey on tailoring your undergrad degree for application to a graduate school in economics as well as practical advice for seniors applying

link Chris Blattman’s blog (check the sidebar)

link Jesse Shapiro’s notes on applying for a PhD in economics

link Schlauch and Startz on pre-graduate school characteristics of econ PhD candidates.

Economics beyond ECO100

link The NBER list their programs and the latest progress report. Read them for a sense of the fields of economics.

link Clark medalists. Get a sense of the (mostly applied) fields of economics.

link link The Economist lists their pick of best young economists.

link Impact Evaluation blog at the World Bank

link The Upshot at NYT. It’s their economics blog!

link Al Roth’s blog

link Freakonomics Radio

link Microeconomic Insights

link EconTalk Podcast

link Worthwhile Canadian Initiative

link A Fine Theorem

link Minneapolis Fed blog

link NBER Working Papers Subscribe to their digest and working paper weekly emails!

link Recommended resources from the AEA

link Go to seminars. Go often, go to many different ones. It’s pretty incredible that you’re here at an amazing department with weekly seminars in all different topics. Go. You won’t understand much at the beginning, but over time you will learn more than you realize. No one’s going to even notice that you’re there anyway (in case you’re shy like me).

I personally use an RSS reader to keep all of these in one place (Feedly into Reeder). It’s a nice thing to go through with your breakfast.

If you are at a stage where you find yourself getting more interested in particular subfields, I suggest checking out the syllabus of the undergraduate and graduate courses in those subfields for a feel of the literature and reading suggestions.

Women and minorities in the profession

link Women in Economics at Berkeley

link Mentoring and summer training programs at the AEA directed toward women and minorities

link Claudia Goldin’s list of resources for undergraduate women in economics

link Lots of articles featured by the AEA’s Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession, categorized by targeted audience

link New program at GSB for “undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds interested in research and academia”

link St. Louis Fed’s podcast series on Women in Economics

Where to find opportunities in research

link (if you are a student at Toronto) Note: these are work-study positions. The best way to find unpaid RA is to talk to professors, mostly by taking their classes.

link The most comprehensive RA job listing there is, hosted by the NBER

link Twitter account with economics RA listings.

link Jobs at the NBER itself.

link Harvard Econ lists resources for their undergrads, but you don’t have to be a Harvard student for most of these.

link Predoctoral Fellowships at SIEPR (Stanford)

link Princeton lists some jobs here

link Columbia lists some jobs here

link Yale lists some jobs here

link J-PAL/IPA recruitment drive

link The Fed (if you’re American)

How to apply to a research assistant position

My suggestion: remember that the point of being a research assistant is to assist research. You can make the PI/professor’s life a lot easier by moving the research forward in a timely, accurate, and organized manner. It helps a lot that you are familiar with your tools, a good collaborator, and creative in solving problems and communicating your solutions. In that vein, here are some resources:

link Code and data manual for Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse Shapiro’s RAs (updated) (must read)

link Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse Shapiro’s data manual

link Jesse Shapiro on how to present applied micro work

link Jesse Shapiro on how to write an applied micro paper

link My list of useful computer tools for doing research, use at own risk

link A monster list on how to run studies in the developing world

link General resource on academic time management and organization

link Steve Pischke on how to get started on research in economics

link The World Bank DIME Wiki

If you are picking between RA offers, I suggest talking to current/former RA’s to get a feel for the lab and the PIs (people mostly don’t lie about their experience). You can also ask for their placement list to have a sense of who came to the lab and where they ended up.

What is grad school like?

This list of links I compiled for myself during undergrad so that I could have an idea of what I was signing up for. Might have to update them as I go through grad school myself…

link Advice for first-years at Cornell

link PhD in Economics at Berkeley (see their minimum math requirement for an idea of what you might need at the very least)

link Publication lags and young economists’ research output

link David Weil’s pep talk

link Claes Backman’s tip for PhD students

link NBER Summer Institute Econometrics Lectures for when you have some free time and want to pick up some new tools instead of going to the beach or something

link Owen Zidar’s notes for first year at Berkeley

link David Card and Stefano DellaVigna’s nine facts about top journals in economics

GRE

I used Magoosh and loved it.

To the best of my understanding, 168 on Quant is the lowest “safe” bar at top-10 schools. I’ve heard rumors recently that some departments would not take scores lower than 169 but haven’t been able to substantiate that. Of course, the only truly “safe” thing is to retake until you get a 170, but who has the time and money?

News/media economics

link Columbia Journalism Review. They also have a good podcast.

link Poynter

link Nieman Lab

link Longform podcast

link NYC Media Economics Seminar

Support

Research is hard.

link Counseling and Psychological Services. Graduate students in our discipline suffer from severe symptoms of depression and anxiety (link). Please talk to a counselor at your university, it can help more than you’d imagine.

link The Creative Independent host interviews about the creative process from all the people you know and love.

link Lego Grad Student (now a Lego Assistant Professor)

link PhD Comics

link Ira Glass on The Gap (not the clothes store)

link Econ haiku

link Inspirational project suggestions from Matt Rabin

link The Salt blog at NPR. Food econ is good econ.

link Authors share and discuss their all-time favorite passages in literature.

link Make sure you get rejected

I find applying for research opportunities extremely anxiety-inducing. Remember that the process of application is very much random, almost bizarrely so. Remember to be grateful for what you get. Remember to be proud that you are applying yourself. Remember to seek support. Remember to take care of others and yourself. Remember to be kind.

link Remember this quote from Ocean Vuong’s interview:

Competition, prizes and awards are part of a patriarchal construct that destroys love and creativity by creating and protecting a singular hierarchical commodification of quality that does not, ever, represent the myriad successful expressions of art and art making [QL: or “science and research” in our case]. If you must use that construct, you use it the way one uses public transport. Get on, then get off at your stop and find your people. Don’t live on the bus, and most importantly, don’t get trapped on it.

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