Tuesday, July 29, 2008

It is all in the title

Publishing in Economics is also a lot about marketing your results. It is thus no surprise to me that US Economists dominate this profession: Americans are simply better at selling. One particular aspect of this marketing is the title of your paper. It pikes the interest of the potential reader.

One master of the art of title writing is Daniel Hamermesh. Here is a sample of his research:

Strike Three: Umpires' Demand for Discrimination

Cues for Coordination: Light, Longitude and Letterman

Changing Looks and Changing "Discrimination:" The Beauty of Economists

The Economics of Workalcoholism: We Should Not Have Worked on This Paper

The Value of Peripatetic Economists: A Sesqui-Difference Evaluation of Bob Gregory

Beauty in the Classroom: Professors' Pulchritude and Putative Pedagogical Productivity

Dress for Success -- Does Primping Pay?

Shirking or Productive Schmoozing: Wages and the Allocation of Time at Work

How ‘Grievous’ Was the Biblical Famine?

12 Million Salaried Workers Are Missing

When We Work

Of course, Hamermesh has a tack fro quirky research topics, which helps in finding original and intriguing titles. I notice also that his early work did not have much originality in the titles. I conclude this comes with experience, or with tenure.

No comments: