Writing Economics 
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                 Robert Neugeboren with Mireille Jacobson 
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                 @2001 The President and Fellows of Harvard University (minor revisions in Jan. 2005) 
        Acknowledgments 
                         This guide was proposed and supported by The Harvard Writing Project. 
                         Nancy Sommers, Sosland Director of Expository Writing, and Kerry Walk, 
                         Assistant Director of the Writing Project, read drafts, gave advice, and saw 
                         the project through from inception to completion. Kerry Walk wrote the 
                         section on Formatting and Documentation (chapter 5). Christopher Foote, 
                         Assistant Professor of Economics and Director of Undergraduate Studies, 
                         wrote part of chapter 3 and commented on drafts of the whole work. 
                         Oliver Hart, Michael Murray, Lorenzo Isla, Tuan Min Li, Allison Morantz, 
                         and Stephen Weinberg also gave very helpful comments. Special thanks to 
                         Mireille Jacobson, who compiled the appendices, added examples, and 
                         revised and proofread the text. Thanks also to Anita Mortimer and the 
                         Economics Tutorial Office. 
                                Contents 
                                                                                                  1  Introduction | The Economic Approach 
                                                                                                  1  Economics and the Problem of Scarcity 
                                                                                                  2  The Assumption of Rationality 
                                                                                                  3  The Theory of Incentives 
                                                                                                  3  Writing Assignments in Economics 970 
                                                                                                  4  Plan of This Guide 
                                                                                                  5  One | Writing Economically 
                                                                                                  5  Getting Started 
                                                                                                  6  The Keys to Good Economics Writing 
                                                                                                  7  An Example from the Literature 
                                                                                                  8  Achieving Clarity 
                                                                                                10  Managing Your Time 
                                                                                                11  Two | The Language of Economic Analysis 
                                                                                                11  Economic Models 
                                                                                                12  Hypothesis Testing 
                                                                                                13  Regression: An Example 
                                                                                                14  Improving the Fit 
                                                                                                14  Applying the Tools 
                                                                                                16  Three | Finding and Researching Your Topic 
                                                                                                16  Finding a Topic for a Term Paper 
                                                                                                18  Finding and Using Sources 
                                                                                                19  Doing a Periodical Search 
                                                                                                19  Taking and Organizing Notes 
                                                                                                21  Four | The Term Paper 
                                                                                                21  Outlining Your Paper 
                                                                                                22  Writing Your Literature Review 
                                                                                                23  Presenting Your Hypothesis 
                                                                                                24  Presenting Your Results / by Chris Foote 
                                                                                                29  Discussing Your Results 
                                                                                         
                                                                                                30  Five | Formatting and Documentation / by Kerry Walk 
                                                                                                30  Placing Citations in Your Paper 
                                                                                                32  Listing Your References 
                                                                                                34  Sample References Entries 
                                                                                                44  Appendix A | Fields in Economics 
                                                                                                47  Appendix B | Standard Statistical Sources 
                                                                                                49  Appendix C | Electronic Indices to Periodical Literature