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Journal ojEconomic Perspectives
6
1
Winter 1992
Pages 169-179
The Young Economist's Guide to Professional Etiquette
Daniel S Hamermesh
Nearly all advanced graduate students and new assistant professors demonstrate astounding naivete in their non-substantive professional dealings. Graduate programs in economics offer courses that lead to
written drafts of important research; they teach little about how to refine those drafts and, more generally, about the personal interactions that cut and polish intellectual diamonds in the rough. I provide here a short course aimed at removing that naivete and helping young economists to avoid faux pas that might reduce their success in the profession.
If I Am Not For Myself, Who Is For Me?
\-Vith tenure decisions usually made 5 years after you start your first full-time academic job, a leisurely revision of your thesis and slow submission for publication court disaster. A major reason for denying tenure at most schools is lack of publications resulting from the researcher's slow start. Committee work, lecture preparation and advising students can quickly fill your schedule. At least one manuscript from your thesis should be sent to a journal before you have finished your first year as an assistant professor. Better still, have the entire thesis material submitted by that time: then move on to other research. Unless you discipline yourself to produce research and try to publish it, it simply will not happen.
Daniel S. Hamennesh is Professor of Economic, Michigan Stale University, East Lansing, Michigan, and Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Young economists are often extremely diffident about presenting their work. Remember, though, good research is rarely done in solitary confinement; and appearing inexperienced in public leaves you no worse off than obscurity and anonymity. A presentation can improve your work, acquaint senior scholars with it, and raise your visibility with editors and potential employers.
Present your work at seminars, professional meetings and conferences. These last in particular often welcome younger people, and can be broadly attended. If you do so, make sure you get the paper to discussants at least 10 days before the meeting. At least one well-known economist has killed off many relatives in excuses about tardy papers and has a wide reputation for irresponsibility.
Do not be embarrassed to...