Text in the Social Sciences

If you’re interested in using text, Gentzkow, Kelly, and Taddy have a helpful overview of how text data has been used in economics and econ-adjacent fields. What’s really great is they not only introduce methods but also discuss best practices in applying these methods. They discuss applications towards the end if you want to skip ahead to get ideas before thinking about methods.

I think David Robinson and Julia Silge’s book is a wonderful intro if you decide to take the plunge and get your hands dirty. As someone coming to all this with no background in text, I found their philosophy of one-token-per-row incredibly intuitive. Most importantly, it makes dealing with text feel a lot less intimidating.