Penn Professors on Writing in Economics
Professor Jere Behrman
About the Professor
Professor Behrman is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Economics. Professor Behrman is also a Research Associate at Penn's Population Studies Center and he serves as the Economics/Social Science member of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Institute of Child Health and Development (NICHD) National Advisory Council. He is a leading international researcher in empirical microeconomics, with emphasis on developing economies. His research interests include empirical microeconomics, labor economics, human resources (early childhood development, education, health, nutrition), project evaluation, economic demography, incentive systems and household behaviors. The unifying dimension of much of this research is to improve empirical knowledge of the determinants of and the impacts of human resources given unobserved factors such as innate health and ability, the functioning of various institutions such as households and imperfect markets, and information imperfections.
Personal Writing Tips
In Professor Behrman's Economics 261 class, Topics in Development, students are assigned a research paper. In addition to working in a team of 4 or less, students will learn how to write Feasibility Studies and Literature Reviews as well as how to obtain datasets and formally present papers.
In Economics 261, writing should be explanatory, and the focus is predominently on structure than on overall findings.
Students should focus on a doable topic, a "well-defined, tractable issue."
Links
Back to Writing in the DisciplineOther Professors in Economics:
Professor George Mailath
Professor Rebecca Stein
Professor Petra Todd
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