3
LaTeX users extol its advantages in the composition of math within a paper. I see no
reason to doubt this is true. However, I do not believe it is the primary reason for wide-
spread adoption of LaTeX. Consider the counterfactual where LaTeX maintains its ad-
vantage in the composition of math but the output in print is ugly. Very few would use
LaTeX if this were the case. Therefore, I conclude that appearance/aesthetics is the dom-
inant reason for widespread adoption of LaTeX. This, after all, was the motivation for
Knuth to create the TeX system in the first place.
My views on the “LaTeX question” have changed over time. Initially, as a non-LaTeX user,
I was frustrated at the diculty of trying to write papers jointly with students and col-
leagues who use LaTeX. At times, I had to resort to the old-fashioned method of scotch-
taping handwritten edits on a printed copy of the paper. Conversations with numerous
colleagues suggest my frustration was hardly an isolated event. This led me to think that
LaTeX was just another example of a “cool kids club” that could be used to exclude the
“uncool kids.”
2
There may well be an element of that in economics, but reading about
Knuth and his motivation for inventing TeX has given me a newfound appreciation for the
importance of aesthetics in academic papers.
3
Academics are real people with real emotions
and they react to the “artistic” appearance of a paper, whether they want to admit it or
not. At the margin, I think this can aect evaluation of one’s work.
While I believe there is widespread agreement that LaTeX papers have a superior aesthetic
appeal, there is little formal evidence about the costs of adopting this production method.
A thriving LaTeX eco-system can be found online, with a heavy representation of people
from computer science and related elds. I tried my hand at learning LaTeX and was
surprised by how much time it would take to become minimally procient. I readily admit
to being a member of the Microsoft Word (and Oce) technology tribe, and also not being
the most technically adept person around. At the same time, I don’t think that I should
have to become a computer programmer just to write a paper.
4
I also considered several
LaTeX editing programs or “shells” in order to hopefully improve the benet cost-ratio. I
2
A less charitable interpretation is that LaTeX is used as a barrier-to-entry by the “cool kids” in the eco-
nomics profession.
3
I highly recommend the article by Platoni (2006) in this regard. It contains an extended interview with
Knuth that is fascinating on several levels.
4
My initial experimentation with writing in LaTeX left me with a strong feeling of déjà vu. I was struck by
the similarity to my early experiences writing papers on a DOS-based PC in the mid-1980s before the intro-
duction of WSYIWIG word processing packages. For those who have been around that long, who can ever
forget the soft-yellow glow of plain text on the screen?