• The research proposal and introduction have a structure similar to the introduction of the paper.
• The introduction consists of:
• Background
  • Necessary and sufficient information to make motivation and questions make sense.
• Motivation
  • The reason why the question is important: the reason why the reader has to read the paper and why the audience has to listen.
  • The reason why the question was unanswered.
  • Illustration + argument.
  • You don't have to convince everyone.
  • You just have to give at least one reason that can convince you.
• Question
  • The terminal condition of the project.
  • The project completes if and only if this question is answered.
  • For the project to complete, it is necessary that the terminal condition is well-defined.
• Data
  • The data used to answer the question
  • Which variable is novel?
    • Exogenous variable to identify causal effects
    • Endogenous variable to reveal parameters
• Methods
  • How do you answer the question with the data?
• (Expected/Realized) Results
• Counterfactuals
  • Exercises to derive the implications.
• (Expected/Realized) Implications
  • How the results of the analysis change the belief and decisions of policymakers.
• (Expected/Realized) Contributions
  • Which part of the paper is novel. Novelty is a binary outcome. New or not.
  • The contribution is an argument about how these novel points change the belief of the scholar in the research community.