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A few weeks ago, I presented my paper with with Tara Steinmetz on female genital cutting (FGC) in The Gambia at the 2013 RECODE conference at the University of Ottawa, which was superbly organized by my Ottawa colleagues Alberto Chong, Fernanda Estevan, Louis Hotte, and Christopher Ksoll.

As a result of the comments I have received there and elsewhere, the paper has changed considerably, and it is about to change even more. Still, I thought I’d share the slides of my presentation given that my blog has had many visitors interested in FGC over the weekend. You can find my slides here (link opens a .pdf).

From a similarly titled post by Dave Giles:

1. Always, but always, plot your data.
2. Remember that data quality is at least as important as data quantity.
3. Always ask yourself, “Do these results make economic/common sense”?
4. Check whether your “statistically significant” results are also “numerically/economically significant”.
5. Be sure that you know exactly what assumptions are used/needed to obtain the results relating to the properties of any estimator or test that you use.
   Continue readingTen Things Applied Econometricians Should Keep in Mind

My department is hosting this academic year’s edition of the MIEDC conference:

In the spring of 2014, the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota will host the 11th Midwest International Economic Development Conference on Friday, May 2 and Saturday, May 3 2014 at the McNamara Alumni Center on the University of Minnesota East Bank Campus in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The guest speaker will be Tim Besley, Professor of Economics and Political Science at the London School of Economics, University of London.

We invite you, and any other interested faculty and graduate students in your department or elsewhere, to submit a paper to present at the conference. Papers on any topic related to international economic development are welcome. Submissions for an entire session (of 3 papers) are also welcome.

Deadline for submissions is January 6, 2014. Papers will be reviewed by a committee from the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. You will be notified by January 31, 2014 whether your paper has been accepted.

Information about topics, papers and presenters at last year’s conference is available at:

http://www.aae.wisc.edu/mwiedc/schedule.asp

Additional information about this year’s conference is available at:

http://faculty.apec.umn.edu/pglewwe/Minnconf/index.html

Questions about submissions, contact: Paul Glewwe

Submit papers to: Frank Trnka