Backstory: How Research Papers in Economics Get Made

In this episode, Riccardo interviews Loren Brandt about the paper “Labor Force Participation and Structural Change,” coauthored with Chaoran Chen and Xiaoyun Wei. Loren reflects on his journey into research and academia, from his early work on China’s economy to the broader questions that have guided his career. He explains what it takes to build a coherent research agenda and why he found academia the best path for exploring the questions that interest him.

Riccardo talks to Raúl Sánchez de la Sierra about the backstory of his paper “Moral Violence: Unbundling Social Preferences at the Heart of a Major Armed Group in Congo” (with Louis Dunia and Hilary Yu). This episode uncovers a unique journey that takes us back ten years, when Raúl was forging the connections and friendships that gave him access to the inner circles of Congolese armed groups. What makes this episode special is that we not only see how Raúl’s research developed and how he approaches projects many would consider too risky, but we also get a glimpse of Raúl as a person and what he values in both academia and his work. Enjoy!Here is a link to the working paper: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ng1vm6vgg1twu5kwa9q92/4.-Moral-Violence.pdf?rlkey=0c25yxzi097u691g62bcc2ytl&e=1&dl=0

In this episode, Aakash speaks with David McKenzie about how he identifies research problems across his various agendas. David also discusses the differences between working as a researcher at the World Bank versus in academia, and shares the private and external benefits of creating public goods. Tune in to learn more!

In this episode Santiago talks with Gani Aldashev, professor of Economics at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, about the backstory of his paper, "Relationships in the Wild: How Institutions Affect the Governance of Firms", that discusses how the “best practices” for firm governance vary according to the strength of political institutions [Working paper = https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/7k1j3z5p8qfiq803lxeri/Aldashev-Rantakari-Zanarone-Dec-24.pdf?rlkey=4wvs9qeorvdk2djd8pybeqiwa&e=1&dl=0].Gani shares how the idea came from both reflecting on firms’ performance in his own context growing up as well as noting how two different literatures had built up without talking to each other: firm governance theories that abstract from political institutions and political economy models that ignore the role of firms.Gani also shares with us some advice on how to start building a model. Here is a list of articles he finds useful for junior researchers on starting to work on a model and building a research agenda:Hal Varian: How to Build an Economic Model in Your Spare Time on JSTOR https://www.jstor.org/stable/25604102Paul Krugman: how to be a crazy economist in Foundations of research in economics : how do economists do economics? https://archive.org/details/foundationsofres0000unse_s4e8/page/n9/mode/2upDavid M. Kreps: Introduction (First chapter) Game Theory and Economic Modelling https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=qMoTDAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=kreps+economics&ots=odo3ZepfLt&sig=c8n4--DGhTDoL6cM0x7qINXwYSw#v=onepage&q=kreps%20economics&f=false

In this episode, Santiago sits down with Gedeon Lim, Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Hong Kong, to explore his research on migration, ethnic diversity, and nation-building. They delve into his paper "Ethnic Proximity and Politics: Evidence from Colonial Resettlement in Malaysia", which examines the long-term political impacts of a British colonial resettlement program in Malaysia. Gedeon shares the personal and professional journey behind this study, highlighting how historical events shape contemporary voting behavior. The discussion also covers the challenges of archival research, the importance of fieldwork, and the nuances of conducting research in one's native region.This project is co-authored with Chun Chee Kok. You can find the Working Paper here: https://gedeon89.github.io/gedeonlim.com/mypolitics-KL.pdf?dl=0

In this episode, Michela Giorcelli, Associate Professor of Economics at UCLA, discusses her paper, “The Effects of Business School Education on Manager Career Outcomes,” with Maddison. Tune in to learn about the development of this paper and the story behind how Michela collected unique historical data for this project and several of her other projects.

Ellora Derenoncourt talks with Santiago about her research on the impact of past incarceration status on labor market outcomes in the US. Ellora shares how her interest in inequality and the ladder of opportunities led her to focus on the criminal justice system as an underlying mechanism. Ellora also shared her "one-stop shop" to look for archival data: https://www.hathitrust.org/. It's a consortium of libraries that recollects and digitizes data and great place to start looking for new data. Ellora is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Princeton. The coauthors of the project are Desmond Ang (Harvard), Kyle Hancock (Princeton), and Jing Wu (Princeton).