How to read a research paper

1. SOME QUESTIONS WE CAN ANSWER
WITH THE HELP OF REGRESSION ANALYSIS
Ryan Herzog, Ph.D.
Gonzaga University

2. HOW TO READ AN ECONOMICS PAPER BASED ON
REGRESSION ANALYSIS
• Look for the research question
• From the research question try to figure out what is the dependent and the independent
variables
• Once you know what the variables are, make sure you understand how they are
measured.
• Look for the results
• Most of the time all of the above will be in the introduction
• If you want to dig deeper – find why the author thinks there is a relationship between Y
and X

3. EXAMPLE PAPER 1
• Angrist, J., Lang, D., & Oreopoulos, P. (2009). Incentives and services for college
achievement: Evidence from a randomized trial. American Economic Journal: Applied
Economics, 1(1), 136-63.
• “randomized evaluation of academic services and incentives”
• What is the unit of observation?
• What are SSP, SFP, SFSP?
• What is the dependent variable?
• What are the results?
• The assignment of treatments was randomized – hence we can claim causality. In most
of the situations we have to use data available to us and have to control for
confounding factors to disentangle causal effects.

4. EXAMPLE PAPER 2
• Hoxby, C. M. (1996). How teachers' unions affect education production. The Quarterly
Journal of Economics, 111(3), 671-718.
• Relationship between teachers’ unions and:
• per pupil expenditure
• Teachers’ salary
• Student-teacher ratio
• Dropout rates
• What is the unit of observation?
• What are some of the control variables included in the study? Where did the author find them?
• What is the relationship between unionization rates and student-teacher ratio?

5. INTRODUCTION HOW TO
• Any study needs to be motivated
• Some good examples of motivation include one or a few of the following
• -Recent events
• -Policy
• -Alarming data
• -Historical comparison
• -Controversy associated with the topic
• Look at the introductions of the articles we have discussed, how did they motivate their
study?

6. EXAMPLE PAPER 3
• Mulholland, S. E. (2013). White supremacist groups and hate crime. Public Choice, 157(1-
2), 91-113.
• What is the dependent variable?
• What is the independent variable?
• What is the unit of observation?
• What is the research question of the paper?
• What are the control variables in the paper? Why do you think the author holds them constant?
• Please interpret the result from the 1st column of the 2nd table
• What is the difference between tables 2, 3, and 4?
• Please interpret the results from tables 3, and 4.

7. EXAMPLE PAPER 4
• Voy, A. (2012). Globalization, gender and child work. Oxford Development Studies, 40(1),
1-19.
• What is the baseline regression?
• What are the dependent variables?
• What are the independent variables of interest? How are they measured?
• What are the data sources?
• What is the unit of observation?
• Why does the author control for income? Based on the results from table 4, what
happens when income is controlled for? What does it suggest?

8. EXAMPLE PAPER 5
• Young, A. T., & Tackett, M. Y. (2018). Globalization and the decline in labor shares:
Exploring the relationship beyond trade and financial flows. European Journal of Political
Economy, 52, 18-35.
• How do the authors measure globalization?
• What is the dependent variable?
• What are the independent variables of interest?
• What are the control variables?
• Based on table 2 (columns 1-4) what is the general relationship (positive or negative) the
authors are finding between dependent and independent variables?

9. EXAMPLE PAPER 6
• Bologna, J. (2014). Is the Internet an effective mechanism for reducing corruption
experience? Evidence from a cross-section of countries. Applied Economics
Letters, 21(10), 687-691.
• What is the research question of the paper?
• What is the independent variable?
• How did the author construct her independent variable?
• What are the dependent variables?
• What are the data sources for the dependent variable?
• What are the control variables?
• What are the differences between specifications 1,2,3 and 4 in each table?
• Please interpret the results for the first specification in one of the tables

10. TO DO
• Please pick one of the papers listed and answer the questions pertaining to that paper.