Advertise on podcast: Backstory: How Research Papers in Economics Get Made

Riccardo talks to Fulvia Budillon, a PhD candidate in Economics at UC San Diego currently on the job market. Fulvia discusses the backstory of her job market paper, “Beyond Access: Facility Birth, Healthcare Use and Early-Life Mortality in Malawi.”The conversation begins in the field, where Fulvia—through qualitative work, conversations, and failed attempts—arrives at her current research question and identification strategy. It then moves to the “middle stage” of the process: dataset construction, cleaning, and working with large administrative data. Finally, it circles back to the field, which is part of the reason Fulvia is drawn to development and health topics: behind the data she studies are real people whose health is shaped in meaningful ways by the circumstances they live in.You can find the link to Fulvia’s paper here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yCLMf3jxV-1gEMX5C_4h2TUeKSNVw9G-/viewTo learn more about our wonderful candidate, you can visit her website: https://www.fulviabudillon.com/home-page

Riccardo speaks with Ariel Zucker, Assistant Professor of Economics at UC Santa Cruz, about her paper “Price Incentives for Conservation: Experimental Evidence from Groundwater Irrigation.”The conversation explores the logistical challenges of running a large-scale field intervention, the lessons learned from multiple pilot attempts, and the trade-offs graduate students often face when conducting fieldwork on a tight budget. It concludes with a broader reflection on what draws Ariel to her field of research and to academia more generally.You can find the working paper (coauthored with Nick Hagerty) here: https://www.arielzucker.net/_files/ugd/2eee53_ed03d0df4bfb4e5694b95deb022c6768.pdf

Mikey speaks with Lauren Falcao Bergquist, an assistant professor of economics and global affairs at Yale. Lauren talks about how and why she studies agriculture in developing countries, the challenges that entails, and how she and her co-authors overcome those challenges in her new paper on Ugandan coffee farmers and their supply chains.

Precious speaks with Paul Christian, an Economist in the Development Impact (DIME) Department at the World Bank, whose research explores how agricultural and food security programs can better target and manage irrigation and subsidy projects across the Global South. Paul shares the story behind his paper “Shaping Productive and Progressive Agricultural Subsidies in Mozambique,” which examines how the design of subsidy price schedules can influence both productivity and equity. He reflects on what first drew him to agricultural economics, how to design field experiments that balance rigor with real-world relevance, and why open-mindedness and opportunism matter in development research.

Santiago speaks with Dean Spears, a Professor at University of Texas at Austin. Dean shares the backstory of his new book with Michael Geruso. He tells us how he bridges working across economics, demography and ethics and why he thinks we should all engage in the topic of depopulation. His new book is available here: https://deanspears.net/books/after-the-spike-population-progress-and-the-case-for-people/

Join Maddison as she speaks with Madeline McKelway, an Assistant Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College. Maddie shares the backstory behind her paper with Namrata Kala, "The Power of Persuasion: Causal Effects of Household Communication on Women's Employment." She also shares her experience navigating field work and getting started with RCTs. The working paper can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LgQtwvTMExxf49YvnkgWugxhffJ2rqlF/view

In this episode, Maddison interviews Yasir Khan, an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Pittsburgh, about the backstory behind his paper coauthored with S.K. Ritadhi, “Economic and Political Consequences of Credit Policy for Minorities: Evidence from India.” Yasir also shares his experience and his advice about starting and navigating collaborations in grad school. The working paper can be found here: https://y-khan.github.io/yasirkhan.org/khan_ritadhi_minority.pdf

In this episode, Santiago interviews Oeindrila Dube about her work in progress "Can Contact Reduce Conflict? Experimental Evidence from Nigeria", coauthored with Soeren Henn and James Robinson. Oeindrila discusses the importance of keeping an eye out for interesting stories that can become new projects, as well as how to conduct research in sensitive places and the process of teaming up with NGOs.

In this episode, Riccardo interviews Loren Brandt about the paper “Labor Force Participation and Structural Change,” coauthored with Chaoran Chen and Xiaoyun Wei. Loren reflects on his journey into research and academia, from his early work on China’s economy to the broader questions that have guided his career. He explains what it takes to build a coherent research agenda and why he found academia the best path for exploring the questions that interest him.

Join Riccardo as he talks to Nathan Nunn about his paper “Zero‑Sum Environments, the Evolution of Effort‑Suppressing Beliefs, and Economic Development.” They explore how Nathan’s idea‑generation process has evolved over the years, the value of reading beyond economics, and the challenges and rewards of bringing insights from other disciplines into economic research. Nathan also offers a behind‑the‑scenes perspective on what it’s like to break new ground in economics and how that shapes both the questions we ask and the way we measure them. Finally, he shares insights from his role as an editor at the Quarterly Journal of Economics, sharing tips about the publication process. Here is a link to the working paper, coauthored with Augustin Bergeron, Jean-Paul Carvalho, Joseph Henrich, & Jonathan L. Weigel: https://www.nber.org/papers/w31663

Riccardo talks to Raúl Sánchez de la Sierra about the backstory of his paper “Moral Violence: Unbundling Social Preferences at the Heart of a Major Armed Group in Congo” (with Louis Dunia and Hilary Yu). This episode uncovers a unique journey that takes us back ten years, when Raúl was forging the connections and friendships that gave him access to the inner circles of Congolese armed groups. What makes this episode special is that we not only see how Raúl’s research developed and how he approaches projects many would consider too risky, but we also get a glimpse of Raúl as a person and what he values in both academia and his work. Enjoy! Here is a link to the working paper: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ng1vm6vgg1twu5kwa9q92/4.-Moral-Violence.pdf?rlkey=0c25yxzi097u691g62bcc2ytl&e=1&dl=0

In this episdode, Maddison interviews Natalie Bau, Professor of Economics at UCLA, about the backstory behind her paper, "The Long-Term Effects of School Quality in a Low-Income Country: Evidence From 15 Years of Data" with Jishnu Das and Catherine Michaud-Leclerc. Natalie discusses how she and her coauthors conduct a unique panel survey in Pakistan, so that they can carefully study long-run effects of primary schooling. Natalie also shares advice about working on joint projects with faculty, connecting with coauthors, balancing time and risk between projects, and developing a research agenda.

In this episode, Aakash speaks with David McKenzie about how he identifies research problems across his various agendas. David also discusses the differences between working as a researcher at the World Bank versus in academia, and shares the private and external benefits of creating public goods. Tune in to learn more!

In this episode, Aakash speaks to Francis Annan (UC Berkeley) about his paper titled "Randomized Entry", exploring how the entry of financial services firms impacts local economies. Francis shares the backstory of his collaboration with key industry stakeholders, his innovative approach to measuring economic outcomes, and insights on working with firms in challenging contexts. The working paper can be found here: https://www.nber.org/papers/w33134

In this episode Santiago talks with Gani Aldashev, professor of Economics at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, about the backstory of his paper, "Relationships in the Wild: How Institutions Affect the Governance of Firms", that discusses how the “best practices” for firm governance vary according to the strength of political institutions [Working paper = https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/7k1j3z5p8qfiq803lxeri/Aldashev-Rantakari-Zanarone-Dec-24.pdf?rlkey=4wvs9qeorvdk2djd8pybeqiwa&e=1&dl=0]. Gani shares how the idea came from both reflecting on firms’ performance in his own context growing up as well as noting how two different literatures had built up without talking to each other: firm governance theories that abstract from political institutions and political economy models that ignore the role of firms. Gani also shares with us some advice on how to start building a model. Here is a list of articles he finds useful for junior researchers on starting to work on a model and building a research agenda: Hal Varian: How to Build an Economic Model in Your Spare Time on JSTOR https://www.jstor.org/stable/25604102 Paul Krugman: how to be a crazy economist in Foundations of research in economics : how do economists do economics?  https://archive.org/details/foundationsofres0000unse_s4e8/page/n9/mode/2up David M. Kreps: Introduction (First chapter) Game Theory and Economic Modelling  https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=qMoTDAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=kreps+economics&ots=odo3ZepfLt&sig=c8n4--DGhTDoL6cM0x7qINXwYSw#v=onepage&q=kreps%20economics&f=false