Resources for Economics Students

In line with our mission to advance scholarly innovation in the field of economics among undergraduates, we have compiled the following list of resources for students interested in conducting their own quantitative research and individuals hoping to pursue the study of economics beyond the undergraduate level. 

Mentorship:

The Sadie Collective provides mentorship for Black Women interested in quantitative social sciences and curates an online portal allowing mentee’s to network, and share resources or job opportunities

Graduate School and Research Assistant Preparation

The American Economics Association outlines the minimum mathematics background required at most PhD programs and suggests that real analysis is becoming increasingly valuable for applications to top programs. 

Susan Athey’s advice for aspiring Economics PhDs provides valuable information on undergraduate course selection along with the graduate school application process. 

Livia Alfonsi (UC Berkeley) and Gaia Dossi (London School of Economics and Political Science) have compiled a comprehensive list of tips for those serving as research assistants to help make the most of the experience and effectively contribute to the authors’ work. 

Pathways to Research and Doctoral Careers (PREDOC) curates a list of post-baccalaureate research assistant opportunities from participating institutions including the University of Chicago, J-PAL, the Federal Reserve System, and the MIT Department of Economics

Coding Resources

Any undergraduate interested in conducting a quantitative research project using Stata should consult Asjad Naqvi’s workflow guide. This resource will ensure that your project is highly organized and will help develop best practices for writing readable/reproducible code.

Arthur Turrel’s interactive ebook is a fantastic introduction to coding for economists. This resource is especially beneficial to those who are familiar with Stata but want to learn Python to take advantage of its advanced functionality, including working with big data, natural language processing, and geo-spatial analysis. 

When it comes time to write your paper, having a smooth workflow from Stata to Latex will make it much easier to publish your results.  Asjad Naqvi has compiled a comprehensive Stata-to-Latex guide that shows how to seamlessly convert Stata output to publication-quality Latex tables. 

Replication Data and Code: Great resources for those looking to begin their own quantitative research project.

The American Economics Association requires that all papers publish their data and code used for a paper unless the original data source is confidential or non-public. The AEA makes this information available in their Data and Code Repository to allow others to conduct replication and extension studies.

The Journal of Applied Econometrics Data Archive contains data for all papers accepted after January 1994, unless the data are confidential. For some papers, especially more recent ones, the Data Archive also contains programs and supplementary material, such as technical appendices and additional graphs.

The Replication Wiki,  sponsored by the University of Göttingen and endorsed by the AEA, provides replication materials and replication papers for empirical econometric research from a wide range of leading journals.