Writing Economic Theory Papers

These notes aim to distill our advice concerning how to write a decent theory paper. These notes are deliberately brief, making them easy to consult. In particular, it consists of the advice we most frequently give to our students. First, we will follow our own advice and explain our marginal contribution over the other works out there. Varian (1997) is a wonderful essay, expressing his personal approach. In comparison, this paper seeks to be more of a “how to ” guide. Thomson (2001) is a comprehensive and well written guide to all aspects of a young economist’s career. This paper is more focused on explaining what we look for in good economic theory paper