(1) Select the question you are interested in. For students who have no academic interest, scientific research will be a very painful thing, which is not good for their physical and mental health. When each student is looking for a topic, he must first find the question he is really interested in, because the motive force to promote academic research is curiosity, which is the pure intellectual pleasure in solving guessing games. Some students may be utilitarian and want to choose a topic that is helpful to their career development, which often leads to the same topic or too empty.
(2) Choose the problems that can be solved by the theoretical and practical experimental conditions you have mastered. Another characteristic of China students is that they always want to choose the most meaningful topic. This is understandable, but there are some misunderstandings. There are too many meaningful topics, but we can only choose our own topics within the existing constraints. This constraint is our theoretical basis and experimental condition. For example, undergraduate students have limited theoretical knowledge, so it is inevitable that it is difficult to choose graduate programs, or projects that are not allowed by laboratory conditions cannot be completed. Many meaningful problems are beyond our grasp for the time being, so we have to give up with regret. For example, how to get happiness in life can be said to be the most meaningful topic, but what methods can you use to study this problem? For example, female students studying in the United States travel faster than male students, because male students always want to do such a big problem as the overall thinking of China's economic system reform, while female students are more practical in collecting data, making models, adjusting parameters according to their tutors' opinions, and the results are easier to produce results.
(3) Try to make the questions as detailed as possible, and don't choose big and empty questions. A big, empty question can only show that you haven't thought clearly about a question. For example, if your topic is "Research on China's Balance of Payments", readers can't judge what you really want to study. In fact, it may be more suitable for a course than a paper. For example, a more desirable topic might be "Why does China have a double surplus of current account and capital account at the same time". (4) On the premise of satisfying the first three conditions, try to choose questions that others will be interested in. Everyone wants his article to be read by more readers, which may bring a "dilemma" when writing economic papers. In essence, it is impossible for many readers of economic papers. A first-class economic journal may be written by only 500 people and read by 500 people. However, there are exceptions. I remember an article in the Journal of Political Economy about the political economy in the fairy tale The Wizard of Oz. According to the author's research, this fairy tale is actually a political fable, reflecting the controversy surrounding the reform of the American monetary system. This article was highly praised by Friedman. In fact, it is not a highly technical academic paper at all, and its genius lies in finding a good analytical angle. Zhang Wuchang's fable about bees has the same effect. Imagine a beautiful farm in spring. The flowers are fragrant, bees are busy among the flowers, and economists are thinking about property rights. How romantic and poetic this is, how can it be clear at a glance?