Supply and Demand for New Ph.D.s in Economics

The importance of writing as communication It is indeed true that researchers like us (post-docs, research fellows, senior researchers, and so on) working in academia or in public/private/non-profit institutes spend a lot of time at their desks: writing articles, among other things. We maybe Doctors of Philosophy, but in reality, we are Masters in Writing and a few other things. This is because the demands of a researcher’s role requires us to be jacks of a lot of trades and masters in some.

1. Creative Thinking When things go wrong during your PhD program – which they surely will! – then you need to find creative solutions. If your initial analysis found no meaningful results for your primary question, did it reveal other interesting insights? If your pilot experiment didn’t work out, can you salvage the data or design a better experiment? Perhaps you couldn’t find the data you were hoping for – would finding a suitable instrumental variable help fill the gap?

Candidates can find more information in our guide on how to successfully apply to a PhD in Economics. For institutions aiming to find the best international talent for their PhD positions, the most important question is how to reach the right audience, primarily current master’s students. You don’t want to waste all your budget chasing after the wrong candidates.