How to read an empirical paper? outcome, policy variable(s) (treatment variable(s)) waht is the causal effect does the paper try to get at?

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES

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Article Review Instruction Summary

A few points to discuss: Research question Research design Identification strategy Interpret the results

How to read an empirical paper:

Basically, we look for four main things

Research question

outcome, policy variable(s) (treatment variable(s)) waht is the causal effect does the paper try to get at?

Main results

Look for table or figure with the main findings – interpret in economic term

Data source

Where the data come from?

Identification strategy

How does the paper get the results/findings

First, skim the paper to find out there four main things

My way to read the paper (probably many of empirical people do the same):

First, I look for the main equation to identify outcome and the main policy variables.

This is to identify the research question and the causal relation between outcome and policy variables.

Then, I look for identification strategy – to determine whether I can believe the findings.

Look for the source of exogenous variation (of policy variable)

IV, natural experiment, RD design, .....

Some knowledge on institutional details to see whether the exogeneity is valid.

Then, look for the main findings from the Tables

Tables and figures

Robustness check

Rule out Alternative explanation Falsification test or Placebo test

Skills we focus

Learn about empirical paper’s structure

Pin down identification strategy in the paper

Evaluate the identification strategy – is the estimated effect causal? Trace the data sources if possible

Interpret the results in the table

Discuss the results by relating to previous research

New contribution of your research

Typically, a new contribution in an empirical paper comes from

new idea new dataset

new methodologies

new interpretation of the results

combination of a few elements above is most common

Attachments:

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