Research idea checklist

High-level (at least two for JMP, one for decent paper)

• New? (literature frontier).
• Interesting? (Real-world relevance, policy implementation).
• Data? (New data).

RQ specification

• Find concrete real-life example or policy.
• Check data.
• Specify trade-off.
• Specify the setting (agents, outcomes, etc).
• Specify potential research design (identification).
• Specify simple economic model.

Final checklist

• Talk to other PhDs.
• Talk to faculties (2+).
• Present preliminary ideas.