ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how to conduct and write up a research study. This starts with a discussion on how to choose a topic. The chapter then discusses how to conduct the empirical analysis, including checking the data, determining the optimal sample, selecting the optimal dependent variable and key explanatory variable, choosing the right set of control variables, scrutinizing the model, and conducting variants of the analyses as robustness checks. Next, there is a discussion on the steps involved in writing up a report, with the various sections that are usually expected and strategies for how to make the paper more readable for someone reading it in depth or just skimming. The discussion includes how to write a literature review, the importance of at least a basic conceptual framework, what to describe about the data and how you chose the methods used, how to efficiently and effectively present the results, and what of the results to describe.
