Macroeconomic Theory
Spring 2019
Jeffrey Parker, Reed College
Selected Paper Assignments
One of the eleven paper of the week assignments require you to select a paper of your choice from the recent macroeconomic literature. This assignment is required.
Selecting a paper
The paper you select should have been published no earlier than 2016 and come from one of the following journals, which are the top-quality macroeconomic "field journals":
- American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics
- Journal of Monetary Economics
- Journal of Economic Growth
- Journal of Money, Credit and Banking
Nearly any paper in one of these journals would be suitable for this assignment. Select one on a topic that interests you and that seems to be accessible in terms of methodology.
If you find a paper that you want to use that does not come from one of these journals, you must get it approved in advance. There are many excellent macroeconomic papers published in the top "general" journals such as Quarterly Journal of Economics, American Economic Review, and Journal of Political Economy. Papers from these sources are excellent as long as they are really macroeconomics; you should verify the suitability of a paper from these journals before beginning the assignment.
Writing your analysis
Your analysis should be only 1-2 (single-spaced) pages in length. It should cover the following points:
- What question was the paper attempting to answer?
- What general methodology did the paper use (e.g., theoretical modeling, DSGE simulations, econometric estimation)?
- What did the paper conclude in answering its question?
- What are your conclusions about the paper?
- Were there non-standard assumptions that seemed inappropriate?
- Do you think this was an appropriate methodology for answering this question?
- Did the conclusions follow logically from the analysis? Are they convincing?
- Are there extensions to the analysis or alternative analyses that seem like promising directions for research?
- What questions would you ask the author(s) if you had the opportunity?
- Would you recommend this paper to your classmates as a useful extension to the class readings?