Effective Written Communication in Quantitative Economics

R. Keeney—April 23, 2012

Communicating Economics

It is expected that if you have a Purdue AGEC degree, you will be an effective communicator of economic rationale and ideas Written and oral Interviews and applications Assignments, projects, technical reports,

your own promotion etc.

Some Guidelines

All from Research without Tears John Creedy, 2008, published by Edward

Elgar PressQuote from Samuel Johnson:

“What is written without effort is in general read without enjoyment.”

There are lots of types of writing Each profession has its own standards and

requirements The aims here are meant to encompass

nearly all professional (non-literary) writing

The objective of professional writing Clarity

Written communication must emerge as a transparent statement of issues, methods, and results/conclusions

Data/Calculations/Graphs are not clear communication These are supportive or contradictory

evidence in the development of a thesis (argumentative or descriptive)

As the author, you are the expert providing the interpretation

Provide clear interpretations and justify them Succinctness is a virtue (often where the

effort part comes in)

Creedy’s 4 Characteristics of Well Written Analysis

Demonstrates a clear depiction of the question or problem addressed

Motivates the question as worthy of study or investigation

Explicitly states both methods and results

Recognizes both the value and limitations of results and conclusions

Effective writing…

…tells the reader… What they will discover in the

reading Why this discovery is worth

knowing How this discovery was made What is the importance or

significance of the discovery…consists of careful draft and

revision Critical review can be important to

revision…takes time and planning

Introduction

Nearly every document has an introductory section, in almost every case it is the key to successful communication In some professions this may be less

important than an Executive Summary It must provide (at least in general) answers

to what, how, and why relative to the topic addressed in the writing

Also might lay out the further writing via signposts▪ How is the document organized for the impatient

reader who wants to read in a different order than you have written?

Background/Review Sections

Relevance Reviewing literature is done to serve

your purposes, not to drop names or show how much you have read▪ Good literature reviews are not exhaustive▪ Your knowledge/familiarity on the other hand…

Might be the worst taught aspect of the writing discipline

Be sure to avoid: Author 1 showed/said/found X…Author 2 showed/said/found Y…Author 3 showed/said/found Z…

Main Body

Technical and other descriptive reporting

Results reporting and analysisA highly variable section of

writing that is tough to generalize Let your topic be your guide on how

a body section is broken up among discussions of▪ Data and methods▪ Results▪ Analysis

Conclusions

Restatements Question/Approach/Findings

Implications Your analysis has to mean

something… What limitations have been

overcome and what remainNecessary future work

Example paper on website

On the class website, my writeup of the AGEC 352 diet using all 1100+ foods from the 2009 database Whether it’s a good or bad example

of written communication is up to you to evaluate▪ Reading critically helps your writing▪ When you are reading and find

something you don’t understand, ask yourself if it is your knowledge or the author’s ability to communicate that is limiting…

The results: Total Cost = $1.04Table 2. Solution for Subsistence Diet

Long Name Variable Name Quantity Price

Saltines (crackers) sc_pmp 24.24 $0.02

Margarine Margar_grr 0.58 $0.02

Flour flour_JAS 7.74 $0.03

Aldi Potatos 10lb AldPotat_grr 1.18 $0.08

Whole Leaf Spinach wls_pmp 0.67 $0.16

General Mills Total Whole Grain

Gmtotalwg_njm 0.55 $0.26

Why these foods?

Table 3. Nutritional Content per Dollar of Foods in the Optimal Solution

Food Calories Fat Sodium Carbs Fiber Protein Vit A Vit C Ca Fe

Saltines 3,000 75 5,750 500 50 50 0 0 100 200

Margarine 4,384 482 4,603 0 0 0 438 0 0 0

Flour 3,906 0 0 898 39 117 0 0 0 234

Potatoes 1,382 0 0 327 25 38 0 565 25 75

Spinach 281 6 1,250 31 19 31 1,063 156 125 63

Total Cereal1

367 4 727 83 11 11 38 379 417 470

Max Margarine NB NB NB Saltines Flour Spinach Potatoes Total Cereal

NB

1 It is unclear whether the nutritional content of Total Cereal is intended to be with or without milk and whether the cost per serving information has the cost of milk added to the cereal serving cost.

Sensitivity

Table 4. Sensitivity of Diet Cost to Nutritional Constraints

Nutritional

Requirement

Quantity

in Diet

Shadow

Price

Elasticity of Diet

Cost wrt Constraint

Calories 2,500 0.00018 0.43

Fat 44 0.00000 0.00

Sodium 3,088 0.00000 0.00

Carbs 467 0.00000 0.00

Fiber 38 0.00665 0.24

Protein 56 0.00035 0.02

VitA 125 0.00049 0.06

VitC 125 0.00096 0.12

Calcium 125 0.00113 0.14

Iron 226 0.00000 0.00