Academic Paper Writer

Purpose

This skill helps economists draft, structure, and polish academic papers with proper conventions for economics journals. It provides templates for different paper types and guidance on academic writing style.

When to Use

• Starting a new research paper from scratch
• Restructuring an existing draft
• Writing specific sections (introduction, literature review, conclusion)
• Preparing papers for journal submission

Instructions

Step 1: Identify Paper Type

Ask the user:

1. Is this empirical or theoretical?
2. What is the target journal/audience?
3. What stage is the paper at? (outline, first draft, revision)
4. What sections need help?

Step 2: Follow the IMRAD Structure

For empirical papers, use:

1. Introduction - Motivation, research question, contribution
2. Literature Review - Related work and positioning
3. Data & Methods - Sources, sample, empirical strategy
4. Results - Main findings with tables/figures
5. Discussion - Interpretation, mechanisms, limitations
6. Conclusion - Summary and implications

Step 3: Apply Economics Writing Conventions

• First paragraph should state the research question and main finding
• Use present tense for established facts, past tense for your findings
• Be precise with causal language (effect vs. association)
• Cite heavily in the literature review
• Lead with results in the results section

Example Output: Introduction Template

\section{Introduction}

% Hook - Why does this matter?
[TOPIC] is a fundamental question in economics, with implications for 
[POLICY AREA] and [BROADER RELEVANCE]. Despite extensive research, 
we still lack clear evidence on [SPECIFIC GAP].

% Research question
This paper asks: [RESEARCH QUESTION IN PLAIN LANGUAGE]? 
Specifically, we examine whether [PRECISE FORMULATION OF THE QUESTION].

% Preview of answer
We find that [MAIN RESULT IN ONE SENTENCE]. This effect is 
[economically significant / modest / heterogeneous], with 
[QUANTITATIVE SUMMARY: e.g., "a one standard deviation increase 
in X associated with a Y percent increase in Z"].

% Methodology (brief)
To identify this effect, we exploit [IDENTIFICATION STRATEGY: 
natural experiment / RCT / instrumental variable / RDD]. 
Our data come from [DATA SOURCE], covering [TIME PERIOD] 
and [SAMPLE SIZE] observations.

% Contribution / Related literature
Our paper contributes to several strands of literature. 
First, we extend the work of \citet{Author2020} by [EXTENSION]. 
Second, we provide new evidence on [MECHANISM/CHANNEL] that 
complements \citet{OtherAuthor2019}. Finally, our findings 
have implications for [POLICY/FUTURE RESEARCH].

% Roadmap
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. 
Section~\ref{sec:background} provides background and reviews 
related literature. Section~\ref{sec:data} describes our data 
and empirical strategy. Section~\ref{sec:results} presents our 
main findings. Section~\ref{sec:robustness} discusses robustness 
checks. Section~\ref{sec:conclusion} concludes.