Art of Research
Course Description: This course introduces students to the economics faculty at UCLA and their research agendas. Each week a different professor talks about their research interests, their current projects and how they got started. The course has two aims. First, it acquaints students with the faculty, helping them appreciate different fields and ultimately choose a research topic. Second, the course starts students thinking about the process of research at a meta level, helping them understand what makes an interesting question and how to write a good paper.
Spring Term
Week 1 (April 3). PhD Recruiting Day.
Week 2 (April 10). Mike Rothschild
- Research often starts when you know you are confused
Week 3 (April 17). Naomi Lamoreaux
- Economic History and the Study of Institutions
- Beyond Cross Country Regressions
Week 4 (April 24). Bill Zame
Week 5 (May 1). Leah Boustan
Week 6 (May 8). Aaron Tornell
Week 7 (May 15). Rosa Matzkin
Week 8 (May 22).
Week 9 (May 29). Roger Farmer
Week 10 (June 5).
Fall Term
Week 1 (Sep 26). Simon Board
- Introduction to course.
- Relational contracts.
Week 2 (Oct 3). Day Manoli
- Research topics in public finance.
- Job market paper.
- Job market experience.
Week 3 (Oct 10). Matt Kahn
- Climate Change Research
- How to find new data sets for testing relevant hypotheses.
Week 4 (Oct 17). Lee Ohanian
- Understanding Crises and Depressions
Week 5 (Oct 24). Sandy Black
- The role of school starting age on children’s outcomes.
- The components of a good presentation.
Week 6 (Oct 31). Pierre-Olivier Weill
- Search-and-matching (and liquidity) in financial markets
Week 7 (Nov 7). Moritz Meyer-ter-Vehn
- Mechanism Design
- Dynamic Group Decision Making Processes
Week 8 (Nov 14). Adriana Lleras-Muney
- Education and health
- What getting a PhD is about and how it differs from being a good student
Week 9 (Nov 21). Jinyong Hahn
- How to find paper topics.
Teaching Site