Readings

This week: one article + one 25 min. podcast + one newspaper article + create an Overleaf account

  1. The Credibility Revolution in Empirical Economics: How Better Research Design is Taking the Con out of Econometrics
    Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2010, 24 (2): 3-30.
    Joshua D. Angrist and Jörn-Steffen Pischke

  2. Listen to this 25-minute podcast episode about the effects of police killings in the US.
    Pay attention to the discussion of the research design.
    Probable Causation interview with Desmond Ang

  3. Lastly, read this newspaper article:
    Workplace Wellness Programs Don’t Work Well. Why Some Studies Show Otherwise (or read it on the New York Times site here)
    New York Times, August 6, 2018.
    Aaron E. Carroll

  4. Causal Empiricism in Quantitative Research
    Journal of Politics, 2016, 78 (3): 941-955.
    Cyrus Samii
    (Optional reading)

LaTeX

The second half of this class will be a workshop that introduces LaTeX (pronounced “lay-tek” 🤷‍♂️). LaTeX is a scientific typesetting software—basically a Microsoft Word/Google Docs-style program for writing up scientific research.

To use LaTeX and complete the in-class lab, please create an Overleaf account so that you can use LaTeX online (like a Google Doc) to collaborate with your colleagues. Use your university email address to sign up, because it should provide free access.

If you want to install LaTeX on your computer locally so that you can use it from RStudio as well, install it from here (on a Windows machine, install the “MikTeX” distribution).

In-class exercise

Mini Latex tutorial:

Bibliography managers:

Files for exercise:

Latex template: here
R file to generate example regression table: here
Example of a Latex bibliography: here
Example of a graph: here