林潇谈JMP创作心得 Xiao Lin on Their Job Market Paper
本文最初于 2022 年 7 月 2 日 发布于微信公众号 Impactful Research；2026 年 4 月 28 日 同步至本网站。
Originally published on the WeChat official account Impactful Research on 2022-07-02; mirrored to this website on 2026-04-28.
来源：Google图文
从上个找工作的季节开始，我们开辟了一个新的专题，采访那些过去几年中市场上冉冉升起的新星，听他们分享一篇有影响力的“就业市场论文”背后的故事。
这个系列的第五篇文章，我们邀请到林潇分享他的job market paper的创作历程和对青年学者及博士生的建议。林潇即将加入宾夕法尼亚大学担任助理教授，他的job market paper “Credible Persuasion” 研究了说服理论中的信息披露承诺问题，扩展了现有理论的假设，填补了理论文献中的重要空白，亦对说服理论在实证应用研究中的适用度有所提高。
林潇主要从事经济学理论、信息经济学和稳健性学习的研究。他的其他论文研究了资产卖家的信息购买与披露的问题，以及多来源信息对信息接受者的最优策略的影响的问题。
以下是林潇分享的关于Credible Persuasion 这篇文章的创作历程。
Q: 您是怎样发现这一研究问题的？
Q: How did you identify this research question?
A: I got exposed to the topic of Bayesian persuasion/ information design before I started my grad school. I found these models super cool and elegant, but also heard lots of complaints about the commitment assumption being unrealistic. Especially after chatting with a friend who works on empirical IO and wants to use Bayesian persuasion models in studying physician-patient relationships, I realized that though in the past decade Bayesian persuasion models have attracted lots of interest in economic theory, they were rarely used in applied work partly due to the difficulty of justifying those assumptions. So I believe addressing the commitment issue not only contributes to the theory literature, but also could facilitate more applied work. This motivates me to think seriously about the commitment assumption. Inspired by schools’ grading, the idea that one could commit through the observability of message distribution came to our mind, which eventually leads to the “Credible Persuasion” paper.
A: 在我开始读研究生之前，我就接触到了有关贝叶斯说服（Bayesian persuasion）或者信息设计（information design）的话题。这些模型非常酷也非常优雅，但我也听到很多关于这些模型所做的承诺可维系的假设不现实的抱怨。我有一个从事实证产业组织研究的朋友，她想用贝叶斯说服模型来研究医生与患者的关系。在我和她聊天后，我意识到虽然在过去的十年中，贝叶斯说服模型吸引了经济理论领域中很多研究者的注意，但是一部分由于那些假设很难被验证，它们很少出现在实证应用方面的研究里。因此，我相信解决维系承诺的问题不仅有助于相关理论文献的完善，而且还有利于应用工作的发展，这促使了我和我的合作者去深入思考关于承诺维系的假设的问题。而后在学校的打分系统的启发下，我萌生了可以通过信息分布的可观察性来维系承诺的想法。这篇论文“Credible Persuasion”就是这样开始的。
Q:从您的角度来看，是什么使这篇论文成为一份非常成功的就业市场论文?
Q: From your perspective, what are the main reasons that make this paper a very successful job market paper?
A: I am not sure whether it is a “very successful” job market paper, and how people view the paper, but I will tell you how I like this paper. I think the paper is naturally motivated, and it provides a fresh theoretical perspective to persuasion problems. The results are quite neat and the underlying strategic logic is very clear. It also has some nice economic messages and could potentially enlarge the applicability of persuasion models in applied work. Of course, I believe it also benefits from the fact that persuasion is a popular topic that many researchers are excited about.
A : 我不知道这是否算一篇“非常成功”的就业市场论文，以及其他人如何看待这篇论文，但我能告诉你我对这篇论文的看法。我认为这篇论文的出发点比较自然合理，它为说服问题提供了一个新的理论视角。另外，论文的结果是很简洁的，它背后的行为策略的逻辑也非常清晰。同时，这篇论文还有一些不错的经济学含义，并有可能提高说服模型在实证应用工作中的适用性。当然，我认为论文的成功也得益于“说服”是一个受欢迎的话题，很多研究者都对这个话题感兴趣。
Q: 在这篇文章写作与修改过程中最大的挑战是什么？
Q: What was the greatest challenge during the writing and revision of the paper?
A : I am very lucky to have an amazing coauthor for my job market paper, so I had someone to get through the challenges together. One major challenge I remember is to write the paper in rigorous and precise language, but also in a way that general audience could understand and appreciate. We invested a great amount of time in this aspect.
A : 我很幸运，我的就业市场论文有一位非常出色的合作者，所以我有同伴一起战胜挑战。我印象中的一个主要挑战是既要使用严谨、精确的语言来进行写作，也要兼顾让更广泛的读者能够理解和欣赏。我们在这方面投入了大量的时间。
Q: 您对青年学者和博士生如何制定一个好的研究问题有什么建议？
Q: Do you have any suggestions on developing a good research question for junior scholars and PhD students?
A: I want to share this advice I received from a professor I respect a lot: “Find research ideas from The Economist, not Econometrica.”
A: 我想把一位我非常尊敬的教授的建议分享给大家：“从《The Economist》而不是《Econometrica》中寻找研究思路。”
Q: 您对攻读博士学位的学生有什么建议吗?
Q: Do you have any advice for PhD students on their PhD study?
A : There is a book named “A guide for the young economist,” by William Thomson. I think it provides excellent advice for grad students and junior faculty. I don’t have much to say on top of that. I just want to further emphasize that one should start to practice presentation and writing as earlier as possible.
A: 有一本书叫《年轻经济学家指南》（A guide for the young economist），作者是威廉·汤姆森 (William Thomson)。我认为它可以为研究生和青年研究者的学习提供很好的建议。在此基础上，我没有太多可以补充的。我只想进一步强调，同学们应该尽早开始练习论文演讲和写作。
Q: 您对求职者有什么建议吗?
Q: Do you have any advice for job market candidates in terms of job hunting?
A : (i) Do your homework! There are many different job opportunities for economists in academia, public sectors, and private sectors. You might need to tailor your application package and prepare accordingly; (ii) Be prepared! The job market outcome will highly depend on your performance in the 30min interviews and 90min talks. After submitting your package, I think it is very helpful to practice interview spiels and job talks every day to keep a smooth flow, especially for us non-native speakers. Also I think doing practice interviews with people outside of your field could be very helpful; (iii) Job market is tough. Many people could develop mental health issues during this very stressful process. Don’t hesitate to seek for help and support and do find ways to relax.
A:(i) 做好功课! 经济学家在学术界、公共部门和私人部门有许多不同的工作机会。你可能需要根据自己的情况制作申请材料并有针对性地做准备；(ii) 做好准备! 你在30分钟面试和90分钟交谈里的表现会极大程度决定你的就业结果。在提交申请材料后，我认为每天练习面试和工作论文演讲对于保持流畅的表达是非常有帮助的，特别是对于我们这些非英语母语者来说。此外，我认为与你所在研究领域以外的人进行面试练习也很有帮助；（iii）就业市场是难熬的。许多人在这一非常紧张的求职过程中可能会出现心理健康问题。请不要犹豫去寻求他人的帮助和支持，同时也要找到放松的方法。
学者简介：
林潇 (Xiao Lin) 目前在宾夕法尼亚州立大学经济学从事博士研究。他在2016年获得武汉大学本科经济学和数学双学位，于2022年获得宾夕法尼亚州立大学经济学博士学位并加入宾夕法尼亚大学。他主要从事经济学理论、信息经济学和稳健性学习的研究。他于2019年获得宾夕法尼亚州立大学的Neil Wallace最佳三年级论文奖和RGSO论文奖。2022年，他被评选为第三届中国经济学新秀中国行年轻经济学者之一。
参考文献：
Xiao Lin, Ce Liu. “Credible Persuasion”
Henrique de Oliveira, Yuhta Ishii and Xiao Lin. “Robust Merging of Information”
Ali, S. Nageeb, Nima Haghpanah, Xiao Lin, and Ron Siegel. “How to sell hard information.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 137, no. 1 (2022): 619-678.
| 中文翻译 | 谢欣桐、庞乃琛 |
| 责任编辑 | 李明 |
| 校对 | 林潇 |