Guideline
   • Literature: Search, Read, Analyze
   • Empirical software and method: Stata ；data
   • Presentation
   Literature: Why do you need to 
   read?
   • Know the research frontier of the topic you plan to work 
    on.
   • Summarize the contribution of each important paper.
   • Learn the data construction, empirical model, robustnes
    s checks, etc. anything you can follow or improve in you
    r work.
   • Depict the literature tree that helps you define your con
    tribution.
    Literature: Where to find pape
    rs?
    • If you know what you are interested in, start with one important paper on this 
     topic. Check its literature review (if any) and its references. Identify important 
     papers from those resources. 
    • Read important papers first. They are more likely to be published on Top 5 ec
     onomics journals(Econometrica, American Economic Review, Journal of Politic
     al Economy, Review of Economic Studies, Quarterly Journal of Economics), To
     p 3 finance journals (Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Revie
     w of Financial Studies), etc. Top field journals, such as Journal of International 
     Economics.
    • Read new papers first. They are generally published less than 10 to 15 years 
     from today. Important working paper series, such as NBER, need to be checke
     d too. 
    • If you can find a survey paper on the topic (like papers on Journal of Economi
     c Literature), start with it.
   Literature: Where to find pape
   rs?
   • University library: Sciencedirect, etc. Other working pap
    er web site: NBER, SSRN (especially for finance).
   • Consider to keep yourself updated by subscribing worki
    ng paper/publication weekly email (NBER, AEA, AFA, et
    c.), or related Wechat Official Accounts.  
    Literature review: How to read
    ? 
    • Abstract: a well-written paper would include its motivation, major 
    work, and contribution in the abstract. Find each of those three c
    omponents from the abstract and keep it in mind when you read 
    through the paper. 
    • Introduction: the writing style of the introduction is relatively flexi
    ble. But generally authors start with a more detailed motivation: 
    the gap between the new stylized facts in data and how the curr
    ent theory is incapable to explain. Then some authors define thei
    r contribution, while others may articulate their major work first. 
    Given you already learned those two components from the abstr
    act, read the details and think if the authors define their contribu
    tion correctly or if the major work suits its research purpose.