Results, Implications and Conclusions

1. Results, Implications and Conclusions

2. Results • Summarize the findings. • Explain the results that correspond to the hypotheses. • Present interesting and related interpretations. • Verify the accuracy of the findings. • Discuss the test statistics • Explain why better than other • Explain why the results are reasonable (no upward sloping demand curves.) • Usually present statistical results in a table with test statistics. • It is also often helpful to provide a figure if you can provide a picture of how the results relate to the hypotheses.

3. Implications • Often part of the results section • Take the findings and work them into the story of the paper. • Did you find evidence to support your hypothesis? • What does that mean • Do the implications lead to secondary hypotheses?

4. Purpose of Conclusions • Very important; clearly and concisely summarize how you accomplished what you set out to do • You should write your conclusions next to last just before writing your introduction. • Plan to re-write the conclusions MANY times. • If you haven’t convinced the reader of your point by now, you will not do it here • Just state the results very concisely • Be accurate • Send a clear take-home message.

5. Purpose of conclusions (continued) • Do not oversell your results. • Never try to draw conclusions beyond what your model or empirical results imply. • Just because you think something else is true, if you haven’t shown it, don’t claim it. • In the very last paragraph, you can speculate a bit about why certain things are observed and suggest further work to find out. • Point out your paper’s weaknesses. • Explain who cares about the results and why. Show value in the result not previously realized.

6. Components of the Conclusion section • Start with a strong and concise statement about what has been accomplished in the paper. • Avoid giving too much detail • Present the general principles. • Summarize your result briefly (if you can’t do this, you don’t understand what you found). • It should be consistent with what was foreshadowed in the introduction what was found in the analysis

7. Draw (economic) implications and lead into a discussion of the policy implications • Methodological papers might draw out the implications for future economic practice. • Don’t stretch so far that your implications are not justified. Be truthful. • Acknowledge weaknesses • Questionable assumptions • Weak data or empirical results • Weaknesses in the method and econometrics • Discuss implications for future research