Readings

Here is the Fall 2026 reading list. Readings are organized by unit and alphabetized by the first author’s last name.

Books used in this course

Assigned excerpts from the following books will be provided on Canvas:

  • Angrist and Pischke, Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist’s Companion
  • Bellemare, Doing Economics: What You Should Have Learned in Grad School—But Didn’t
  • Champ, Boyle, and Brown, editors, A Primer on Nonmarket Valuation
  • Ethridge, Research Methodology in Applied Economics
  • Greenlaw, Doing Economics: A Guide to Understanding and Carrying Out Economic Research

All other readings, including articles, handouts, course notes, and reviewer guidelines, will also be available on Canvas.

Unit 1: Foundations

  • Ethridge, Don E. “Research and Methodology.” Research Methodology in Applied Economics: Organizing, Planning, and Conducting Economic Research, 2nd ed., Blackwell Publishing, 2004, pp. 15–35. Chapter 2.

  • Ethridge, Don E. “Methodological Concepts and Perspectives.” Research Methodology in Applied Economics: Organizing, Planning, and Conducting Economic Research, 2nd ed., Blackwell Publishing, 2004, pp. 36–57. Chapter 3.

  • Ethridge, Don E. “Philosophical Foundations.” Research Methodology in Applied Economics: Organizing, Planning, and Conducting Economic Research, 2nd ed., Blackwell Publishing, 2004, pp. 58–79. Chapter 4.

  • Greenlaw, Steven A. “What Is Research?” Doing Economics: A Guide to Understanding and Carrying Out Economic Research, Houghton Mifflin, 2006, pp. 1–10. Chapter 1.

  • Kenyon, Ralph E., Jr. “Popper’s Philosophy of Science.” 1984. Unpublished essay.

  • Larue, Louis. “A Defense of Reasonable Pluralism in Economics.” Journal of Economic Methodology, vol. 29, no. 4, 2022, pp. 294–308. https://doi.org/10.1080/1350178X.2022.2112266.

  • Machlup, Fritz. “Why Economists Disagree.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 109, no. 1, 1965, pp. 1–7. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/985773.

  • McCloskey, Donald N. “How Economists Persuade.” Journal of Economic Methodology, vol. 1, no. 1, 1994, pp. 15–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501789400000002.

Unit 2: Research Problem

  • Davis, Donald R. “Ph.D. Thesis Research: Where Do I Start?” Columbia University, n.d. Course notes.

  • Dudenhefer, Paul. A Guide to Writing in Economics. EcoTeach Center and Department of Economics, Duke University, Dec. 2009. Sections 5–6.

  • Ethridge, Don E. “Planning the Research.” Research Methodology in Applied Economics: Organizing, Planning, and Conducting Economic Research, 2nd ed., Blackwell Publishing, 2004, pp. 83–99. Chapter 5.

  • Ethridge, Don E. “The Research Problem and Objectives.” Research Methodology in Applied Economics: Organizing, Planning, and Conducting Economic Research, 2nd ed., Blackwell Publishing, 2004, pp. 100–12. Chapter 6.

  • Greenlaw, Steven A. “Overview of the Research Process in Economics.” Doing Economics: A Guide to Understanding and Carrying Out Economic Research, Houghton Mifflin, 2006, pp. 11–30. Chapter 2.

  • Varian, Hal R. “How to Build an Economic Model in Your Spare Time.” The American Economist, vol. 41, no. 2, 1997, pp. 3–10. https://doi.org/10.1177/056943459704100201. Assigned pages 1–3 of the course PDF.

Unit 3: Introduction and Literature Review

Unit 4: Theory

  • Cheng, Eugenia. How to Write Proofs: A Quick Guide. Department of Mathematics, University of Chicago, Oct. 2004. https://courses.cs.duke.edu/spring15/cps102/notes/Cheng%202004.pdf

  • Chouinard, Hayley H. “Theory Notes.” EconS 529, 2015. Course notes.

  • Ethridge, Don E. “The Conceptual Framework.” Research Methodology in Applied Economics: Organizing, Planning, and Conducting Economic Research, 2nd ed., Blackwell Publishing, 2004, pp. 127–39. Chapter 8.

  • Romer, Paul M. “Mathiness in the Theory of Economic Growth.” American Economic Review: Papers & Proceedings, vol. 105, no. 5, 2015, pp. 89–93. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.p20151066.

  • Varian, Hal R. “How to Build an Economic Model in Your Spare Time.” The American Economist, vol. 41, no. 2, 1997, pp. 3–10. https://doi.org/10.1177/056943459704100201. Assigned pages 4–6 of the course PDF.

Unit 5: Data

Unit 6: Methods of Analysis

  • Angrist, Joshua D., and Jörn-Steffen Pischke. Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist’s Companion. Princeton University Press, 2009. Chapters 1–3.

  • Athey, Susan, and Guido W. Imbens. “Machine Learning Methods That Economists Should Know About.” Annual Review of Economics, vol. 11, 2019, pp. 685–725. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-economics-080217-053433.

  • Athey, Susan, and Guido W. Imbens. “The State of Applied Econometrics: Causality and Policy Evaluation.” Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 31, no. 2, 2017, pp. 3–32. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.31.2.3.

  • Falk, Armin, and James J. Heckman. “Lab Experiments Are a Major Source of Knowledge in the Social Sciences.” Science, vol. 326, no. 5952, 2009, pp. 535–38. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1168244.

  • Gibson, John. “Are You Estimating the Right Thing? An Editor Reflects.” Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, vol. 41, no. 3, 2019, pp. 329–50. https://doi.org/10.1093/aepp/ppz009.

  • Jurajda, Štěpán. Lecture Notes on Identification Strategies. 12 June 2007.

  • Kim, Jae H. “Tackling False Positives in Business Research: A Statistical Toolbox with Applications.” Journal of Economic Surveys, vol. 33, no. 3, 2019, pp. 862–95. https://doi.org/10.1111/joes.12303.

  • Starr, Martha A. “Qualitative and Mixed-Methods Research in Economics: Surprising Growth, Promising Future.” Journal of Economic Surveys, vol. 28, no. 2, 2014, pp. 238–64. https://doi.org/10.1111/joes.12004.

  • Timmins, Christopher, and Wolfram Schlenker. “Reduced-Form Versus Structural Modeling in Environmental and Resource Economics.” Annual Review of Resource Economics, vol. 1, 2009, pp. 351–80. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.resource.050708.144119.

Unit 7: Reviewing

  • Agricultural and Applied Economics Association. American Journal of Agricultural Economics: Refereeing Criteria for Judging the Merits of Journal Submissions. 2013. Reviewer guidelines.

  • Berk, Jonathan B., Campbell R. Harvey, and David Hirshleifer. “Preparing a Referee Report: Guidelines and Perspectives.” SSRN Electronic Journal, 17 Feb. 2015. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2547191.

  • Boonpramote, Thitisak. Writing for Economics Journals: Elements of Publication Success. Division of Economics and Business, Colorado School of Mines, 2000. Final report for LICM598: Academic Publishing Seminar. https://journalofeconomicinsight.com/index.php/joei/article/view/1045

  • Choi, E. Kwan. “Rejection and Revision.” How to Publish in Top Journals, n.d., http://www.roie.org/how.htm. Accessed 14 Aug. 2026.

  • Ethridge, Don E. “Guidelines for Critiquing Papers.” Research Methodology in Applied Economics: Organizing, Planning, and Conducting Economic Research, 2nd ed., Blackwell Publishing, 2004, pp. 229–30. Appendix D.

  • Fryer, Roland G., Jr. “A Response to Steven Durlauf and James Heckman.” Journal of Political Economy, vol. 128, no. 10, 2020, pp. 4003–08. https://doi.org/10.1086/710977.

  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Integrating Human Health and Well-Being with Ecosystem Services: Peer Review Process, Evaluation Criteria and Rating Classifications. Science to Achieve Results Program, 2016, https://www.epa.gov/research-grants/integrating-human-health-and-well-being-ecosystem-services-request-applications-rfa. Accessed 14 Aug. 2026.

Unit 8: Results and Conclusion

  • Bellemare, Marc F. “The Conclusion Formula.” Agricultural Economics—Without Apology, 6 Oct. 2016, https://marcfbellemare.com/wordpress/12060. Accessed 14 Aug. 2026.

  • Bellemare, Marc F. “Writing Papers.” Doing Economics: What You Should Have Learned in Grad School—But Didn’t, The MIT Press, 2022, pp. 5–37. Chapter 2.

  • Dudenhefer, Paul. A Guide to Writing in Economics. EcoTeach Center and Department of Economics, Duke University, Dec. 2009.

Unit 9: Seminar and Ethics