PhD Frequently Asked Questions
In this page, I collect anquestions that I frequently asked myself during my PhD, possibly with answers.
Personally, the article for PhD students that helped me the most is “Doing research” by Paul Niehaus. But beware, it might not work for everyone.
Starting the PhD
Information
- “PhDs: the tortuous truth”, Chris Woolston, 2019.
- “Why doing a PhD is often a waste of time”, The Economist, 2016
- “Should you do a PhD?", Daniel K. Sokol, 2012.
- “So, you want to go to a grad school in economics?", Ceyhun Elgin and Mario Solis-Garcia, 2007.
Applying
- “How to Ask Your Professor for a Letter of Recommendation”, James Tierney, 2020.
- “Pre-Doc Guide”, Alvin Christian, 2019.
- “Advice for Applying to Grad School in Economics”, Susan Athey, 2016.
- “The complete guide to getting into an economics PhD program”, Miles Kimball, 2013.
- “The 12 Step Program for Grad School”, Erik Zwick.
Starting
- “Reflections on Grad School in Economics”, Nick Hagerty, 2020.
- “How to survive your first year of graduate school in economics”, Matthew Pearson, 2005.
During the PhD
Mental Health
- “Graduate Student Mental Health: Lessons from American Economics Departments”, Bolotnyy, Valentin, Matthew Basilico, and Paul Barreira, 2021.
- “Mental Health, Bullying, Career Uncertainty”, Colleen Flahert, 2019.
- “How mindfulness can help Ph.D. students deal with mental health challenges”, Katie Langin, 2019.
- “Managing Your Mental Health as a PhD Student”, Joanna Hughes, 2019.
- “What Makes It So Hard to Ask for Help?", Joan Rosenberg, 2019.
- “Grad school depression almost took me to the end of the road—but I found a new start”, Francis Aguisanda, 2018.
- “Faking it”, Chris Woolston, 2016.
- “Panic and a PhD”, Jack Leeming, 2016.
- “There’s an awful cost to getting a PhD that no one talks about”, Jennifer Walker, 2015.
Research and Ideas
- “Advice for Academic Research”, Ricardo Dahis, 2021.
- “Sins of Omission and the Practice of Economics”, George A. Akerlof, 2020.
- “Doing research”, Paul Niehaus, 2019.
- “An unofficial guidebook for PhD students in economics and education”, Alex Eble, 2018.
- “The Research Productivity of New PhDs in Economics: The Surprisingly High Non-Success of the Successful”, John P. Conley and Ali Sina Önder, 2014.
- [“How to get started on research in economics?"](http://econ.lse.ac.uk/staff/spischke/phds/How to start.pdf), Steve Pischke, 2009.
- “The Importance of Stupidity in Scientific Research”, Martin A. Schwartz, 2008.
- “7 Rules for Maximizing Your Creative Output”, Steve Pavlina, 2007.
- “How To Build An Economic Model in Your Spare Time”, Hal. R. Varian, 1998.
- [“Ph.D. Thesis Research: Where do I Start?"](http://www.columbia.edu/~drd28/Thesis Research.pdf), Don Davis.
Presenting
- “Unfair Questions”, David Schindler, 2021.
- “Beamer Tips for Presentations”, Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, 2020.
- “Public Speaking for Academic Economists”, Rachel Meager, 2017.
- “How to present your job market paper”, Eliana La Ferrara, 2018.
- “How To Give a Lunch Talk”, Adam Guren, 2018.
- “The Discussant’s Art”, Chris Blattman, 2010.
- “How to be a Great Conference Participants”, Art Carden, 2009.
- [“The “Big 5” and Other Ideas For Presentations”](http://econ.lse.ac.uk/staff/spischke/phds/The Big 5.pdf), Cox, Donald, 2000.
- “How to Give an Applied Micro Talk”, Jesse M. Shapiro.
- “Tips on How to Avoid Disaster in Presentations”, Monika Piazzesi.
- [“Seminar Slides “](https://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~bhansen/placement/Seminar Slides.pdf), Bruce Hansen.
Writing
- [“5 Steps Toward a Paper”](https://www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dropbox.com%2Fs%2Fq7wjaidl5w91srt%2FGuest lecture FS.pdf%3Fdl%3D0&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNG_nRs6QlkZzWBHAy0PjF4jfEYBAw), Frank Schilbach, 2019.
- “Novelist Cormac McCarthy’s tips on how to write a great science paper”, Van Savage and Pamela Yeh, 2019.
- “The “Middle Bits” Formula for Applied Papers”, Marc Bellamare, 2018.
- “The Conclusion Formula”, Marc Bellamare, 2018.
- [“The Introduction Formula”](https://www.albany.edu/spatial/training/5-The Introduction Formula.pdf), Keith Head, 2015.
- “Writing Tips For Economics Research Papers”, Plamen Nikolov, 2013.
- “The Ten Most Important Rules of Writing Your Job Market Paper”, Goldin, Claudia and Lawrence Katz, 2008.
- “Writing Tips for Ph.D. Students”, John Cochrane, 2005.
- “Writing Papers: A Checklist”, Michael Kremer.
Referiing
- “How To Write A Good Referee Report”, Tatyana Deryugina, 2019.
- “How to Review Manuscripts”, Elsevier, 2015.
- “Contributing to Public Goods: My 20 Rules for Refereeing”, Marc F. Bellemare, 2012
Finishing the PhD
The Job Market
- “A Guide and Advice for Economists on the U.S. Junior Academic Job Market 2018-2019 Edition”, John Cawley, 2018.
- “Academic job market advice for economics, political science, public policy, and other professional schools”, Blattman, Christopher, 2015.
- “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Job Market”, Erik Zwick, 2014.
The Private Sector
- “My Journey from Economics PhD to Data Scientist in Tech”, Rose Tan, 2021.
- “Tech Industry Jobs for Econ PhDs”, Scarlet Chen, 2020.
- “My Journey from Econ PhD to Tech”, Scarlet Chen, 2020.
- “Why it is not a ‘failure’ to leave academia”, Philipp Kruger, 2018.
The Tenure Track
- “The Awesomest 7-Year Postdoc or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Tenure-Track Faculty Life”, Radhika Nagpal, 2013.
More
You can find more resources here:
- AEA Mentoring Reading Materials
- Johannes Pfeifer Job Market Resources
- Kristoph Kronenberg Resources
- Patrick Button Resources
- Ryan Edwards Resources
- Jennifer Doleac Resources
- Amanda Agan Writing and Presentation Advice
- Random forum Resource Collection
I hold a PhD in economics from the University of Zurich. Now I work at the intersection of economics, data science and statistics. I regularly write about causal inference on Medium.