Sample Motivation Letter For Your Economics PhD Application
It should be noted that a European-style motivation letter focuses on academic background and research history, avoiding too much personal information. The US-style personal statement, on the other hand, is much more 'life experience' based. Here, we focus on the European style. 1. What to include in a motivation letter There are a number of essentials you should include in your motivation letter when applying for your PhD. The introduction should (perhaps obviously) clearly state which economics program you are applying for. This will lead nicely into the next section, which should contain your reasons for wanting to do a PhD and specifically why you wish to do the program for which you've applied. It is important to show what impact your proposed research will have on the industry, including perhaps the gaps in the literature/research that currently exist and how your research fills these in. Following on from this, your own academic background should be explained, including any academic achievements or awards you may have garnered aside from your degrees. Finally, your future career plans, and how your PhD and research proposal will help you achieve them, could be your closing statement of the motivation letter. 2. Be specific One bad habit that many people have when writing their motivation letter is being too vague. Saying that you enjoyed your economics undergraduate course or that you find economics interesting is too vague to be meaningful. After all, it can already be assumed that you enjoyed studying economics or you wouldn't be applying for a PhD. Instead, try to be more specific: mention which particular courses or topics appealed to you most, what you learned from them, and why you want to learn more about them. This is also a good way to mention your research areas of interest and how they will benefit the field. 3. Give concrete examples Another common mistake is to make claims without giving any evidence to back those claims up. For example, you'll often see people say 'I work well independently' or 'I am highly organized and good at managing all of my assignments'. Without demonstrating how these things are true, there is no reason for the hiring committee to give weight to your self-assessment. For better results, give concrete examples of your claims in action, such as 'My high level of organization was demonstrated when I completed my economics undergraduate courses while also working a part-time job, which required excellent time management skills' or 'In my second year, I successfully organized an undergraduate conference with 50 attendees.' 4. Show your personality It is important to be professional in your motivation letter, so the letter should not contain jokes, sarcasm, or irrelevant personal information. However, you also needn't be dull and impersonal. You can and should allow your personality to shine through in your letter, and show how you are different from other candidates. Maybe you have strong opinions about a particular topic in economics, or perhaps you have taken an unconventional career path. In these cases, you needn't hide your individuality. Show how your background gives you a unique perspective on your subject's issues and your approach to academic work. Remember, the point of the motivation letter is not to show how similar you are to an imagined perfect candidate – it's to show off your unique personal approach and how you could be a great PhD student. <11an>limit:3;categories:PhD Programs;disciplines:Economics</11an> 5. Focus on skills An adjustment issue that some people have in during a PhD program is the gulf in requirements between an undergraduate or Master's course and a PhD. In an undergraduate or Master's course, you have to attend classes, complete assignments, and perform well in assessments. In a PhD, you will often have to come up with your own research questions, choose the best methodology to answer those questions, and motivate and organize yourself to complete your work. If you don't have direct experience with doing these PhD tasks, that's okay – you won't be expected to know everything before you even start the PhD. However, you do want to show in your motivation letter that you have the capacity to perform this kind of work. In order to do this, you should focus on the skills that you have – such as data analysis, writing, research, presentation, and so on. Try to give examples of how you have used these skills in the past to show that you're ready for the challenge of a PhD now. 6. Talk about your future plans Something that hiring committees like to see is that you are interested in working in your chosen field in the future. This means that you need to talk about what your post-PhD plans are if you want to be accepted. For most people applying for a PhD, the interest will be in doing a postdoc once they have completed the PhD. Other people may know that they want to work in industry, or for an NGO or for the government. Any of these answers is fine, but the committee will want to see that you have thought about your long-term career. Do mention your long-term plans near the end of your motivation letter to show that you are serious about a career in your chosen field. 7. Sample motivation letter for an economics PhD To Whom It May Concern, I am writing to express my interest in pursuing a PhD in economics at Imperial College London. I am particularly keen to apply for the doctoral program in the economics department at Imperial as its research interests are an excellent match for my academic background. I studied Business Management for my BA at Kingston University and during this time I developed a particular interest in the relationship between government policies affecting small businesses and economic outcomes country-wide. Furthering this interest, my BA thesis, which was supervised by Prof. Helen Smith, used statistical techniques to analyse the rate of growth of small businesses before and after new legislation regarding wages was put into place. My aim was not only to consider the ethical arguments regarding minimum wages and small businesses, but also to find evidence about whether policies encouraged or discouraged the growth of small businesses. After completing my BA, I undertook an MSc in economics at University College London. From this course I gained deeper knowledge of statistics and modelling, which I made use of in my thesis project – an investigation into how the number of people employed by a small business affects the ability of that business to weather changes in wage laws. My aim throughout this project was to gather more evidence on the effect of new wage laws on the long-term stability of small businesses. I now wish to continue my academic career with a PhD in economics, and I cannot imagine a better place to study this than the business school at Imperial. I admire the economics department’s commitment to both fairness and to accuracy, and I wish to further my work on minimum wage increases and small businesses in a way that respects both the dignity of workers and the needs of business owners. I particularly wish to work with Dr. Jane Brown, whose work on small business ethics has been a great source of inspiration for me. This research has the potential to contribute to the theoretical models of small business growth in economics, but it also can contribute real-world value to policymakers and small business owners. As small businesses are often touted as the counterbalance in the move towards large multinational corporations due to globalisation, greater understanding of how to support these small businesses, and how to help them grow, will only become more valuable in the future. Owing to my extensive knowledge of small business and wage laws, and my experience with statistical analyses and modelling, I am confident that I can complete the research project which I have proposed to a high standard. While both my previous thesis projects were on a smaller scale, I have recently been volunteering as a research assistant in a co-operative project focussing on cultural differences in small business creation, which has given me experience on large-scale projects too. This experience has helped me to plan out the time for my PhD realistically and confidently. After completing the PhD, I plan to either pursue a postdoc placement within academic economics, or to work as a consultant for small business associations and policymakers. I believe that with my knowledge and experience in this increasingly important field, I can make important contributions to both the Imperial Business School and wider discipline of economics. I hope to be considered for this position.
When you apply for an economics PhD, you will need to write not just a research proposal but also a letter of motivation. This letter describes why you wish to undertake a PhD and why you would be well-suited to researching your proposed topic. But what needs to go in this letter, and what tone is appropriate for it? To give you some ideas, INOMICS is sharing a sample economics letter of motivation, as well as offering advice on how to write your own, so you can maximize your chances of getting accepted. If you plan to start your PhD application this autumn, you can download our free guide "How to successfully apply to a PhD in Economics".
So, we’ve compiled a list of top economics journals to help you familiarize yourself with the publishing landscape. Regardless of where you are in your economics journey – whether freshman, PhD candidate, or professor actively publishing in economics– take note of these influential journals. ➲ Download the INOMICS Handbook now 1. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press This is the oldest English language professional journal in the field of economics – and one of the most respected. It covers all aspects of the discipline, has published many famous economics papers, and is arguably the top economics journal of all time. For those who know their stuff, it is the go-to. 2. Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier A journal with a focus on applied papers and case studies, it often includes conjectural papers which address issues less quantifiable and more descriptive than other journals in the field. 3. Journal of Finance, American Finance Association The Journal of Finance is one of the top places to publish in the field of finance, along with the Review of Financial Studies and the Journal of Financial Economics. 4. Econometrica, Econometric Society With a specialization in econometrics, this journal has been established since 1933. In addition to its reputation, it attracts high-quality research through awarding of the Frisch Medal every two years, which recognizes outstanding research published in the journal. 5. Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association This journal commissions peer-reviewed survey and review articles which aim to keep readers informed about the current state of the economics literature. The journal also features book reviews, information about soon-to-be published books, and an index of economics dissertations from North American universities. 6. Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press Another long-standing journal, the Journal of Political Economy was first published in 1892 and covers both theoretical and empirical work. Its specializations include: monetary theory, fiscal policy, labor economics, development, micro and macroeconomic theory, international trade and finance, industrial organization, and social economics. <11an>limit:2;categories:Professor|Jobs|Courses|Programs|Conferences;disciplines:General Economics (JEL A)</11an> 7. American Economic Review, American Economic Association Established in 1911, this is another well-established and highly respected journal in the field of economics. Once a year, in May, an issue is dedicated to presenting proceedings and papers from the annual meeting of the American Economic Association. 8. Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press Another economics stalwart, RESTUD, as it is known, is a must-read for those interested in theoretical and applied economics. It was founded with the specific aim to publish work from young and up-and-coming economics researchers, a mission which it continues to this day. 9. Review of Financial Studies, Oxford University Press With a focus on financial economics, this journal, published on behalf of the Society for Financial Studies, accepts both theoretical and empirical papers which fit in the intersection between finance and economics. 10. Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier Another influential journal in the field is the Journal of Econometrics, established in 1973. The journal focuses on econometrics methodologies, and how they can be applied to substantive areas of economics. 11. The Review of Economics and Statistics, Harvard Kennedy School Already over a hundred years old, the Review of Economics and Statistics is a general journal of applied quantitative economics. Occasionally, the journal also publishes collections of papers devoted to a single topic of contemporary interest, be it methodological or empirical. 12. Journal of Economic Growth, Springer Science+Business Media This journal predominantly publishes research on economic growth and comparative economic development. Research is primarily contemporary, but sometimes also includes historical insights. Some key topic areas include income distribution, demographic transition, human capital formation, technological change and structural transformation in the growth process. 13. Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier Science Founded in 1975, this journal is a leader in macroeconomic research. It is often ranked highly in its specialist subject area, and accepts submissions in all areas of macroeconomics. In recent years it has published research contributions to a wide range of macroeconomic topics including behavioral macroeconomics, fiscal shocks, and pricing in product and labor markets.
Whether you are a seasoned researcher or a new economics student, it pays to know which journals are the most prestigious and well-known for certain topics. They can help you find the right papers for a literature review, stay on top of the latest research in the field, and even help you set your own publishing goals.
Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics (JEL E)
Econometrics, Statistics and Quantitative Methods (JEL C)
10 Great Resources to Help Teach Economics
1. Moodle If your university has a CMS like Moodle, (this writer had the luxury of having access, thank you Humboldt Universität) you can upload lecture notes, links, and much more to a central website from which students can download all the information they need. You can even use it to host online class discussions (when has this ever been more relevant?) or to notify students that you're running late or a class is cancelled. There is widespread consensus among teachers that this is one of the easiest ways to get your materials online – and trust us, your students will be eternally grateful for the convenience. 2. Discovering Statistics Statistics can, and often is, an intimidating topic for many students, and one which is perceived (INOMICS does not concur) as being dull. Regardless, this website from Professor Andy Field is full of funny, engaging information and practical advice on how to use statistics correctly in an academic setting. It can be an especially useful resource if, as is likely, you have some non-econometrics students in your class who may struggle with stats. The plain-language teaching of Prof. Field has been a ‘way in’ to statistics for countless otherwise hesitant students. Use it. 3. Mendeley Mendeley is a site which can be used for both reference management (the band of most students’ lives) and social networking. For students, the reference management function will be most helpful, allowing them to build reference lists without all the tedious formatting that used to be required. Show this site to students who are tired of fiddly referencing procedures to make their lives easier. Using Mendeley means you can say goodbye to deadline day phenomenon of the disappearing bibliography. 4. Yahoo Finance A website and app for keeping up to date with the latest news in global finance, including stock prices. Students can investigate the stock prices to see how what you are teaching them in the classroom plays out in practice. 5. Khan Academy The Khan Academy offers an enormous resource of online teaching materials which covers economics, finance, mathematics, and much more. If you have a student who is looking for a new challenge, or one who is struggling with the basics and needs some help finding a place to start, then Khan Academy will have materials to assist. 6. SPSS There are a multitude of programs available for statistical analysis, each of which has their own advantages and disadvantages. However, it might be worth using SPSS to introduce your students to statistical software. While it's not the most comprehensive program available, SPSS is relatively easy for a beginner to use and has a large online support community. This makes it an un-intimidating entry for students getting into statistical analysis. 7. iTunes U This Apple app has video and audio educational material from a huge range of subjects, including economics. Some universities will put entire courses online, recording full-length lectures. This makes the app an invaluable support for students. Encourage them to investigate the economics courses which are available to help broaden their knowledge. For teachers, it’s an excellent means of knowing what’s being offered elsewhere, and ensuring your syllabus does not fall behind the times. 8. Economics: A Very Short Introduction The Very Short Introduction books are aimed at a general audience, but they can also provide a helpful starting point for new students who are struggling to orient themselves in a complex field. The book is brief, written in a conversational tone, and easy to chew through, making it an excellent introductory text for your new students. Make it part of your course’s preparatory reading? 9. Freakonomics Radio This podcast, a spin-off from the enormously popular eponymous book, covers exciting and news-worthy issues in economics, with a fun and upbeat approach. It's more casual than academic, but is helpful in showing how the abstract issues discussed in economics can be seen in the real world. It makes for excellent listening on the way to or from economics classes, so encourage your students to download a few episodes. 10. The Economist magazine Requiring little in the way of introduction, The Economist magazine, now well over 150 years old, is notable for the high quality of its writing and its longer, in-depth articles. For students who are interested in the crossover between economics and politics, international relations, or sociology, then this magazine will be full of interesting and relevant material. For the majority, it's likely already in their bookshelves.
Teaching in any capacity, let alone in economics, can be a daunting prospect: the prepping, marking, not to mention the actual teaching. It’s hard work. This reality is most acutely felt when you are starting out or moving institutions and having to settle in somewhere new. In both instances, the pressure and workload can feel intense. That is why it's useful – if not essential – to be aware of all the support that's out there, most of which – conveniently – is free and accessible online. So, without further ado, here are ten of our favourite tools for helping teach economics.
In the words of Economist, Dambisa Moyo, the answer is zero: African people ‘are worse off; much worse off… aid has helped make the poor poorer, and growth slower’. A strong condemnation this may be, but Moyo's assessment is no outlier. Development expert, William Easterly, has drawn similar conclusions – his study ‘Can Foreign Aid Buy Growth’ revealing an inverse correlation between aid and per capita growth. Indeed, the aid establishment has endured four decades of trenchant critiques, many of the most vocal coming from within its own ranks. Throughout this time, the sector has shown itself impressively impervious, rarely changing its approach to development, offering only window dressing in way of reform. When criticism has built, the response from donors, whether the World Bank, the U.S, or even Bono, has invariably been the same: the demand for ‘one final push’. Poverty eradication, by this logic, has always been just one last injection of aid away. Given the huge cash flows of aid from the developed to developing world its persistence is hard to make sense of. Even harder to reconcile is the fact that between 1970 and 1998 poverty in Africa rose from 11% to 66%, this while aid flows were at their peak. <11an>limit:2;categories:jobs|courses|conferences;disciplines:Economic Development, Innovation and Growth (JEL O)|Urban, Rural and Transportation Economics (JEL R)</11an> The paradox Something, evidently, does not add up. How is it possible that an initiative so ‘well-intentioned’ can be so ineffectual, to the point of possibly being disruptive? And further, how can said initiative be allowed to continue unchanged for so long? To answer these questions, it’s necessary to consider the motivations behind its continued provision and the effects of its implementation - simple sounding steps that curiously the development community itself has, thus far, seemed so unwilling to take. Before continuing, one other thing should be said. In the following, ‘aid’ is meant to describe grants and low-interest loans given directly to governments, from other governments or institutions like the IMF, World Bank, etc. It does not cover humanitarian or emergency aid given, for instance, in the aftermath of a war or natural disaster. It should also be noted that what follows isn’t intended to discredit aid per se. Rather, it’s meant to expose the flaws in the form it currently takes – of which, there are many. Questionable motivations? Considering exactly which countries receive aid makes for an interesting starting point, and helps assess how benevolent the aims of donors really are. One would be forgiven for presuming that the five poorest countries in the world, as measured by GDP, would figure prominently among the top recipients of both UK and US aid – two of the world’s most generous ‘philanthropists’. And yet, on inspection, not one feature in either country’s top ten. Instead, the UK funnels the lion's share of its aid to countries that are either burgeoning markets, like, for instance, Nigeria, or countries like Syria and Pakistan, that are believed to be of high geopolitical value – these two, in particular, vital to the ‘war on terror’. The same principles hold true for the US, who gives most of its aid to Israel, Egypt and Jordan; the primary aim in each country not to alleviate poverty, but to buttress American geopolitical aims. Revealing, too, is that these aid packages often come with many strings attached: most often, the guarantee that aid be spent on goods produced by the donor country. More recently, in the case of the EU, aid has been made contingent on the recipient country curbing emigration – a process, which, in effect, has seen the EU outsource part of its borders controls, in one high profile case to a country with a questionable human rights record. When these stipulated conditions aren’t met aid, typically, is withdrawn, making it function as both the carrot and the stick. Using aid so strategically is really nothing new. During the Cold War both sides of the Iron Curtain used it to try to bribe developing countries round to their way of thinking. What it highlights, though, is the insincerity with which aid is so habitually presented. Masked in the language of altruism, its primary concern is often to boost donor’s commercial interests and further political aims. Fostering sustainable economic growth in the recipient country is merely an added (and unlikely) bonus, and sometimes even an irrelevance. How else, for example, could one explain America’s long-term financial aid programme for repressive Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi? Occasionally, the self-interested aims of aid aren’t even hidden. While in Nigeria in 2018, then UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, declared that British aid would be exclusively used as a means of promoting British trade and political interests. As journalist Kenan Malik has noted, in many cases, this ‘aid for us’ focus leads to the exploitation of developing economics: Western governments utilise their ability to ‘borrow money at low rates, set up aid programmes, and then lend said money to poorer countries at much higher rates’. The rich make money; the poor accrue debt. To service the new debt, more aid is then offered and now the aid-dependent country has no option but to accept; thus completing the circle. African debt currently stands at around $350 billion. Disruptive influences Of course, not all aid programmes are so selfishly motivated, at least not so explicitly. Some genuinely seek poverty alleviation and economic growth. And yet, many such initiatives can be equally as destructive. According to development economist Angus Deaton, the problem begins with the way the introduction of foreign money in a country affects the relationship between a government and its people. Essential to the functioning of this relationship is the payment of taxes. To run a country a government must collect taxes from its people, and since the people must agree to relinquish their money for this to work, they hold some power over the government. This dynamic creates accountability. Deaton argues that aid damages this relationship. It reduces government reliance on the people’s taxes, and, therefore, reduces governmental accountability. For weak governments, as the recipients of aid tend to be, the effects of this can be very corrosive, acting as the breeding ground for both corruption and despotism. Research conducted by Transparency International has shown that corruption significantly reduces a country’s productivity, increases inflation and puts off foreign investors – ultimately it creates more poverty. And poverty, as we know, encourages aid. There are countless examples in the African continent of how the introduction and expansion of aid programmes have quickly been followed by increases in corruption. Nigeria, Congo, and Zambia, to name a few, all experienced terrible kleptocratic practices while their governments received enormous amounts of aid. Why continue? The obvious next question is: once this process has begun, why does it continue? Why continue to provide aid for corrupt and despotic regimes? Beyond the economic incentives and political advantages cited above, Moyo posits two further reasons why this cycle of aid is left uninterrupted. First, there now exists an overwhelming pressure on donors to give. A whole industry has grown around aid, one that Moyo estimates employs – through the World Bank, IMF, countless NGOs, charities, and governmental aid agencies – around 500,000 people, or as she puts it the population of Swaziland. The livelihoods of these people depend on the ongoing distribution of aid. Moreover, within many of these organisations, successful lending is measured by the size and quantity of the loans given, rather than what the loans are actually spent on. Non-disbursed aid often increases the chances of aid programmes being slashed, putting jobs at risk. This has internalised the incentive to continuously lend, often, as history has shown, irrespective of the levels of corruption in the recipient country. The decision to lend to less-than-reputable governments is also informed by the view that if aid was reduced, or even cancelled, the poor would suffer. Education and health budgets would not be met and the country in question would falter. This feeling, however worthy, ignores the reality that in the majority of African cases the poor aren’t receiving the money and the country is already faltering. In 2014, Deaton, along with many other economists, contended that of the $135 billion spent on official aid, only a small portion ended up helping the poor. Arguing along similar lines, Economist Peter Bauer described aid as a ‘form of taxing the poor in the West to enrich the new elites in the former colonies’. Once in their hands, rather than saving it, economic studies have shown that most often aid is then spent on consumer goods. This, in turn, has a number of negative consequences. First, as savings decline, banks have less money to lend, leading to a fall in domestic investment. Meanwhile, higher consumption, as a result of the aid influx, means that more money is chasing fewer goods and the country experiences inflation. The typical response to inflation is to raise interest rates, making investment even more unlikely, meaning fewer jobs, which leads to more poverty. And what happens next? The system is broken Clearly aid is not working. From the disingenuous motivation behind its provision, to the unintended and disruptive knock-on effects of its delivery, at every stage there exist problems. If the Western world is sincere in its desire to help end poverty, it needs to put self-interest to one side, return to the drawing board, and consider the possibility that its participation in development – as it’s currently conducted – might actually be unhelpful. Many of Africa’s biggest advances in recent years, like the widespread adoption of mobile phones, have come from within. And as Deaton has long questioned: ‘who put us in charge anyway?’
​Development aid: what is it good for? Well, according to much research the answer may well be absolutely nothing. In fact, it may well be worse than nothing. When judged against its aim of ‘instigating economic development and alleviating poverty’, its record is so dismal it looks as though aid actually hinders the achievement of its own stated goals. And the curious thing is this seems to be something of an open secret. Even to an untrained eye the big numbers pertaining to development aid don’t look right. Take Africa, for example. Over $1 trillion dollars has been pumped into the continent in the last 50 years, and how much has it benefited? How many African countries are actually in a better condition now than they were before receiving aid?
Public Economics & Economic Policy (JEL H)
Economic Development, Innovation and Growth (JEL O)
If you are considering a PhD program, or just beginning one, advanced awareness of these stresses may help you overcome them if you ever have to make their acquaintance (don't worry, we have our fingers crossed). Plus, knowing that they are frequently experienced and nothing out of the ordinary will hopefully provide you some comfort. Okay, let's begin. 1. Isolation One of the most common problems for PhD students is the feeling of isolation. PhD candidates often work alone, having few or sometimes no other people on their project. This happens while friends may be working in offices and in teams, enjoying a far more social side to the 9-5. Predictably, this can lead to loneliness, lack of motivation, and the fear that no one understands, or can relate to the problems you are experiencing. As an antidote to this, it is advisable to make an effort to get into contact with other graduate students. There are many ways of doing this, for instance, through journal clubs, conferences, or networking. Being in contact with other PhD students will give you someone to talk to, complain to, and will help alleviate these disruptive and negative feelings. Simply breaking up the routine of studying can do you a whole world of good! 2. Stress With looming deadlines, large scale projects, and a huge amount of personal investment, a PhD can be extremely stressful. This is compounded by the fact that everything is always riding on you and you alone - making the highs higher and the lows, well, let's not go there. It has been found that PhD students have high levels of mental disorders - likely related to high levels of stress they have to endure. For this reason, it is imperative that one finds healthy ways to decompress, whether through exercise, meditation, the arts, or anything else. Any university worth its salt will also have mental health services which can be sought if things get particularly difficult. Regardless of how bad you're feeling, its always helpful to talk it through with someone. No problem is too small. 3. Conflict with your supervisor Another common problem can be issues arising between PhD students and their supervisors. Supervisors are part-boss, part-mentor, and occasional friend. It's an odd combination, the balance of which sometimes can be hard to maintain. When disagreements surface - and of course, over 3 years it is only natural that they will - some students can feel that they have to defer immediately to the wishes of the more senior and experienced supervisor. Again, here a supportive network of PhD students around you can help navigate these challenges. Additionally, familiarity with the faculty in a broader sense (which is encouraged) will allow you to canvass more opinions. This may help you clear up a point of particular contention. Who knows, maybe you were right all along! 4. Funding issues Most PhD students rely on external funding to support themselves while studying. Unfortunately, this too can be a source of concern. Funding can, at times, be insecure. It has been known, for example, for funding to be reduced while still in the middle of the PhD. This is a precarious position to be left in and it can be extremely stressful to secure new funding. Ideally, supervisors should be on hand to help with this. One should never think twice about approaching them for advice - it's what they are there for. Still, it's also recommended that students at least have some money saved in case of emergency. <11an>limit:3;categories:Scholarships;disciplines:Economics</11an> 5. Time management So much to do, so little time to do it! This is probably the mantra of our age. Learning when to jump at new opportunities and when to say no to extra tasks is a skill which every academic should develop if they are to avoid going mad. This can be honed by knowing how to prioritize. What is absolutely essential that I finish today? What, at a push, could I postpone till tomorrow? Setting aside enough time in your day to fulfil these tasks will help this process and enable you to, when necessary, say 'nope, I literally do not have the time for that'. Rather obviously, it helps to be organized and to calendar your appointments carefully. And remember, it is better to do a few things well, than a number of things badly. 6. Work/life balance It sometimes seems like PhD students are expected to study all the time; to be in the office every weekend and to work late every day. But this is not sustainable. You also need time for hobbies, friends, and family in order to function at peak level. This may seem a really obvious point to make, and yet, many students still suffer from the effects of having an incredibly lop-sided schedule. Students should always remember: making time for activities outside of the PhD is vital for long-term success. A healthy social life, regular exercise, and cultural activities will be stimulating and fun. And, they're likely to make you happier. Even though you might not think about “happiness” when considering your goals for studying, you surely deserve some every now and then. 7. Lack of institutional support Some universities are better than others at supporting PhD students. The best universities have extensive programs for helping them, through mentoring, workshops, and social events, while at other universities students are left to fend for themselves. Graduate schools can be helpful here, as they are geared towards meeting the specific needs of PhDs. Try to find out what kind of support is offered by your institution – there may be more than you think! 8. Lack of personal support Another challenge for PhD students is dealing with a lack of personal support. Friends, partners, and family members may not understand the worth of a PhD, and may not be supportive of the choice to pursue one. Many a PhD candidate has been distressed by a well-meaning relative asking when they will be finished with their PhD and get a real job. This is another reason to get in contact with other PhD students, who can understand the stresses you are experiencing and give you the support you need. Sharing these commonalities also helps to make light of them. Nothing builds camaraderie like shared experiences. 9. Concerns about the future In addition to worrying about their current projects, many PhD students feel concerned about their future too. In an uncertain job market, and with academic positions being intensely competitive, there is no guarantee that getting a PhD will lead to a desirable job (we hope it will!). That said, research does show that having a PhD under your belt hugely increases your chances of getting one. It also increases your chances of being paid better and enjoying greater job satisfaction. Economics PhDs in particular have excellent job placement rates. To help ensure you get to enjoy all of these benefits, it's sensible to start the job hunt early. Remember, too, all the transferable skills you develop during your PhD studies could help you to get an industry job, if you feel you have had enough of academia. 10. Problems with motivation Finally, with a program typically taking at least three years, it's hard for anyone to maintain motivation throughout their whole PhD project. Feeling fed up, bored, or dissatisfied with one's project is a very common experience! When things are not going so well, and motivation is low, you should consider giving yourself a break. A few days or even a week away from your project can sometimes be really helpful, allowing you to come back to your work invigorated and able to look at it from a fresh perspective. Maybe when you come back, you see something that before you had missed? Or even better, maybe you realize that the work you've done is actually a whole lot better than you had previously thought. THIS can be brilliantly motivating. Plus, you probably deserved a break anyway!
Starting a PhD is an incredibly daunting task. Normally at least 3 years, there are some challenges that you are almost certainly going to have to face during the program. Below we look at some of the biggest (and most common) problems that PhD students encounter.
More than just giving you good economics books to read, at INOMICS, we're dedicated to helping you get the most out of your economics education and career. For more information and career advice, download the INOMICS Handbook, which contains interesting insights into the world of economics, as well as recommended institutions and study offers for you. INOMICS takes part in the Amazon affiliate program. This article contains affiliate links, which means we may earn money through any qualifying purchases made after you click through. However, this is not a sponsored post. <11an>limit:2;categories:jobs|courses|conferences;disciplines:General Economics (JEL A)</11an> 1. The Big Short by Michael Lewis A description of the events leading up to the 2007-2008 world financial crisis by financial journalist Michael Lewis, who also wrote Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, this bestselling non-fiction book spent 28 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. In 2015 it was also made into an award-winning film starring Christian Bale, Steve Carrell, and Ryan Gosling. The book follows many of the people who believed the housing bubble was going to burst and who, by betting against the collateralized debt obligation bubble, ended up profiting vastly upon its eventual collapse. It also follows some of those who lost money, such as Howie Hubler, who sits in second place for the most lost in a single trade at $9 billion. 2. Post-Capitalist Society by Peter F. Drucker Peter F. Drucker is considered to be the most important thinker on management theory ever, and his writings have contributed to the development of the modern business corporation. Well known for predicting future events such as the economic rise of Japan and the emergence of an information society, this book argues that First World nations have already moved to a society beyond capitalism, in that capital is owned by organizations rather than individuals. Regular citizens therefore become, in essence, the owners of enterprises, and therefore the owners of capital, meaning capitalism is changed without being destroyed. Drucker concludes by arguing that organizations will continue to become highly specialized, and that outsourcing rather than diversification will define the future. 3. Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg COO of Facebook and former VP of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google, Sheryl Sandberg made a splash with her first book, which deals with women in the workplace. She addresses the reasons that women continue to find less success in the workplace than men, even after the passing of equal pay laws. She also encourages women to promote themselves more aggressively in their careers. The book combines anecdotes, social experiments, and the author's personal experiences to give an overview of how gender politics still play a defining role in the workplace. It also gives some solutions as to how this can be overcome. The book received both glowing reviews and much criticism, with some calling Sandberg a 'faux feminist'. Others have argued that women are turned into consumer objects in the book, with emphasis taken away from solidarity and systematic gender bias. Whatever the relative merits of these criticisms, this book has been so widely reviewed and talked about that it's essential reading. 4. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner Freakonomics deliberately blends pop culture topics with the theories of economics by discussing specific amusing or interesting examples across a series of articles written by the authors. For example, they explore how cheating operates in different businesses including teaching, sumo wrestling, and selling bagels. The light tone and fun content have made this book a big hit with the public, and it has stayed on bestseller lists since it was first published in 2005. It has sometimes faced criticism for being more a work of sociology or even criminology than economics. However, it remained popular, and the authors started their own blog, also entitled Freakonomics, in 2005. 5. The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class by Edward Conard Former managing director of Bain Capital and prominent neoliberal Edward Conard has written another book about the social benefits of inequality, arguing against the commonly held view that the wealthy 1% of US citizens are the cause of many social problems. Debuting at number eight on the New York Times top ten non-fiction list, it was met with broadly positive reviews even by those who disagreed with its argument, such as esteemed economist Larry Summers. Its controversial central theme makes for interesting reading, whether or not you agree with the premise it sets. 6. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith Oldie but goodie, Adam Smith's magnum opus that was published two hundred and fifty years ago remains one of the fundamental works of classical economists. Written as the industrial revolution was taking its first baby steps, it discusses free markets, productivity, and the division of labor. It also attempts to offer practical solutions based on solid economic theory that would replace the culture of mercantilism that dominated at the time. A bestseller that sold out within months at the time of publication, The Wealth of Nations is one of the essential economics books that professionals and laypeople alike ought to have read. 7. Postcapitalism: A Guide to Our Future by Paul Mason Paul Mason, the former economics editor of the British TV channel Channel 4, looks at the current state of global politics and attempts to predict the macroeconomic future of the planet. An analysis of how the 'digital revolution' poses a serious threat to capitalism, Mason argues that the way we view and indeed do work has been totally changed, which has the potential to remove the market-driven economy. Written with the effects of the global financial crisis very much still in mind, Mason's book is polemical and, of course, firmly leaning to the left. Covering everything from protecting to the environment to minimising work until only very small amounts are necessary, some have hailed Mason as 'a worthy successor to Marx'. 8. This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate by Naomi Klein Another anti-capitalist, Naomi Klein, tackles the subject of how environmental concerns will affect capitalist politics in her most recent book. She portrays the solving of the climate crisis as being directly at odds with neoliberal thinking, and requiring an ecological revolution for it to be fully addressed. Her central theme is that the market economy is fundamentally at odds with the climate crisis, seeing as it focuses on increased consumption and consists of trade agreements between countries which destroy the environment. It has received positive reviews even from those who disagreed with some of its argument. 9. Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond Another beloved classic, Guns, Germs and Steel covers aspects of geography, history, and economics in order to explain why European and Asian societies have been historically more prosperous than societies in other parts of the world. First published in 1997, it caused a storm upon release, arguing that Eurasian and North African civilizations have survived not due to any intellectual, moral, or genetic superiority, but due to environmental differences which were predetermined. Criticized as deterministic and simplistic, yet praised for its scope and consciousness of the role of the environment, the book won many an award and was the inspiration for a documentary produced by the National Geographic Society. 10. The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves by Matt Ridley Finally, this book covers topics in both psychology and economics in its argument that the human tendency towards the trading of goods and services is the beneficial trait which has allowed humanity to prosper. This trait, Ridley argues, is central to the reason that human civilizations exist. In a similar vein to Drucker, Ridley argues that as humans become more specialized in what they are good at, prosperity will continue. The Rational Optimist has alternately been seen as a defense of free trade and globalization, and a work that ignores many legitimate criticisms of globalization and wealth inequality. Header Image Credit: congerdesign on Pixabay (Free for use under the Pixabay Content License)
The topic of economics is rich with great writing, and many books have been published over the years that tackle economic issues for a popular audience. Here is our list of ten of the best books in the area of economics. Many of the books here are economics bestsellers, but we have included a few lesser-known titles that have had an important impact on how the public perceives economics. Some titles, too, are interdisciplinary, combining science, psychology and economics to explain history and human processes; others are narratives of events. All, though, are well worth a read.
Agricultural and Environmental Economics (JEL Q)
Although over a decade later neoliberalism is yet to be replaced, its grip on power has considerably loosened, the pandemic – and all its attendant injustice – forcing the most recent reckoning with its shortcomings. It’s a process we can see in real time, with new political formations emerging on both the right and left. Indeed, alternatives that in previous years would have been dismissed as too radical, utopian or even regressive, are now earnestly discussed as people seek an exit from the current political model. But what does this really mean? What exactly are these alternatives looking to depart? The word neoliberalism is used with such regularity – and at times carelessness – that its definition has become hazy, its precepts unclear. And therein lies much of its power. To escape its clutches people must first understand it: how it arose, to whom it accrues power, and by what means it has been sustained. To that end, the following attempts to dissect the term, studying its history, the policies born from its logic, and the effects it’s had on society. It's conception Although famously associated with the politics of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, neoliberalism’s history predates both leaders – the term likely first used in the late 19th century. It found an institutional home, however, some fifty years later, when in 1947 a group of alarmed economists convened at Mont Pelerin, and ominously warned that ‘the essential conditions of human dignity and freedom had disappeared’. To those in attendance – who would coalesce and become the Mont Pelerin Society – the roots of the crisis were clear and found in the ‘declining belief in private property and the competitive market’. A staunch defense of an increasingly besieged free-market capitalism was needed, and the state must withdraw from interfering with economic activity – only then could liberty be preserved. This fear of state intervention was so potent it placed social democracy on the same spectrum as both Nazism and communism. By this logic, government planning – whether in the United State’s New Deal, or the UK’s nascent welfare state – was something to be fought and a mortal danger to individualism, another of the Society's key tenets. State intervention of any kind, it was believed, could, and likely would, lead to totalitarian rule. While hyperbolic to a modern ear, one should remember the period in which these schools of thought emerged. Friedrich Hayek’s polemic The Road to Serfdom – considered a founding text of the doctrine - was first published in 1944 as the Second World War still raged and people were seeing first hand the horrific potential of total state control. Hayek identified German and Soviet economic planning as the birthplace of these tyrannies and promulgated economic libertarianism, a serious reduction of governmental intervention into the economy, as the most effective bulwark against such abuses. As the century progressed, the fledgling ideology caught the attention of the rich who saw it as a means of escaping unwanted governmental restraints – in particular, public protections and high taxation. Through lavish funding from these elites, a network of think tanks straddling both sides of the Atlantic was quickly established, designed to spread the neoliberal word among academics and policy-makers. Despite this financial backing, the ideology remained on the margins. The post-war consensus was in full swing and Keynes’ economic recommendations were being readily applied across most of the Western world. Governments were unashamedly raising taxes – in the UK income tax reached 75% – broadening public services and expanding social security. Neoliberals, in contrast, were thought of as out of step with the real world, relics from the past, and were forced to bide their time. It wasn’t until the economic crises of the 1970s that neoliberalism finally got its chance. But when it did, its ecosystem of think tanks, pressure groups, and organizations were well prepared. As its influential proponent Milton Friedman commented of the time, when Keynesian economics began to fail, and people were scrambling for change, ‘there was an alternative ready there to be picked up’. The world has not looked back. <11an>limit:2;categories:jobs|courses|conferences|Professor;disciplines:Politics </11an> The policies Most famously, neoliberal prescriptions were ‘picked up’ by Thatcher and Reagan who assumed power in 1979 and 1980 respectively. Thatcher was a self-professed, dyed-in-the-wool neoliberal. And had it not been for the reluctance of her own cabinet she would have carried out Hayek’s doctrines to the letter - recently released letters show she had hopes of dismantling the entire welfare state. As it was, in her 11 years as Prime Minister she was still capable of transforming British society. Through a neoliberal policy program of massive tax cuts for the rich; a drawn out, but eventual crushing of trade unions; widespread privatization of housing, telecoms, steel, and gas; financial deregulation; and the introduction of competition in the provision of public services; she left Britain a markedly different place. Across the pond, Reagan had embarked on a similar journey, gutting union power and cutting government spending. Capturing the spirit of the age he declared that ‘the most important cause of our economic problems has been the government itself’. It wasn’t long before the ideology was also adopted by international institutions like the IMF, World Bank and World Trade Organisation, and imposed on an unprecedented scale across the world. Its spread was such that even nominally left-wing political parties, like the UK Labour Party and the Democrats in America, would eventually cave into its practices, assimilating its core principles. And with that, the ‘Overton window’, the range of ideas tolerated in public discourse, moved someway to the right. The reality The politics of the 1980s were, without doubt, neoliberalism at its most strident, and its record during the time is highly contested. In Britain, where its tenets were most closely followed, policy aims were often missed. Economic growth – the Holy Grail to neoliberals and a chief indicator of progress – was actually slower than in previous decades, and its dividends were increasingly unevenly distributed – inequality dramatically rising. Meanwhile, Thatcher’s smashing of the unions left workers vulnerable in the face of big business, and without the protection of collective action, wages were squeezed. This meant that even when the unemployment rate began to fall, in-work poverty rose. Similar trends were found in the US where Reagan's massive tax cuts, shrinking of social security (food stamps, for instance, were slashed), and increased subsidies for corporations increased both inequality and poverty, while lining the pockets of big business. Already unequal, the balance of power tipped further away from the everyman. It was also tipping away from the state. The wilful transfer of authority into the hands of unaccountable transnational corporations was perhaps an even greater consequence of the ideology’s supremacy. Important services were outsourced, the market left in charge, and, with the lobbying industry exploding, money began to rule the roost. This development has proved a dangerous one, reducing governments' ability to respond to the needs of their electorates. Disempowerment and the perceived disconnect between the rulers and the ruled has in turn fed both disenfranchisement and volatility among populations. Few, for instance, would doubt that it was this culture, this feeling of impotency, that contributed both to Brexit and the election of Donald Trump. More than just an economic theory As it’s evolved, entrenched, and become normalized in public discourse neoliberalism has, like many sets of economic and political ideas, morphed into a more general framework by which we are encouraged to understand the world, ourselves, and why we behave as we do. In its crowning achievement, it has managed to redefine what it means to be human. No longer the sentient, cooperative and empathetic beings scientific evidence suggests we are; humans have been reduced to competitors. Coldly rational – ruthless even – neoliberalism has set people against each other, valorising the notion of ‘getting ahead’ – the question of whom, and by what means, too infrequently asked. Our democratic choices, it has also taught us, are best expressed in transaction: a process of rewarding merit and punishing inefficiency that no government could match. It has, in essence, encouraged atomisation. It has loosened societal ties, sanctifying the interests of the individual over all else. As Thatcher would memorably pronounce: ‘there is no such thing as society’. Over time, too, these notions have been internalized, such that now the rich, ignoring their structural advantages of birthplace, inheritance and education, have come to believe that their success is merely a result of their own ability. The inverse is also true. The poor, instead of seeing the often insurmountable obstacles they face, have come to blame themselves for their debt, unemployment, or lack of health. Because of these structural barriers, now so deep-rooted, social mobility has slowed, and wealth is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few. On a personal level, the development of this unforgiving, dog-eat-dog culture has coincided with a proliferation of mental health conditions that populations are now experiencing on unprecedented levels. Self-harm, depression, anxiety have all become hallmarks of our modern age. To fundamentalists this inequality, this inevitable by-product of neoliberalism, is considered virtuous, the talented and hardworking elevated above the idle and unskilled. The system, they contend, is the closest to fair that we can hope for. Taking a look around it’s difficult not to hope that they are wrong. What's next? Whether neoliberalism really is in its last throes hinges on a new system, based on new values, taking its place. And this is far from certain. Political imagination has, for some time, been in short supply. For decades, political parties have hovered around the center ground desperately triangulating in the hope of attracting weary, apathetic voters. However, in the wake of the Brexit and Trump earthquakes, and the devastation of COVID, we may have reached some kind of juncture. As we survey the mounting dissatisfaction, inequality, and alienation, it's hard to argue that things are as they should be. The question is: will something new emerge from the wreckage? Or will we return to a politics of tinkering around the edges, the politics that brought us here, and has, up until now, failed to address society's biggest problems. Only time will tell. Header Image Credit: mark reinstein on Shutterstock (licensed image - editorial use - copyright)
Few would contest it as the ideology of our political age. Ever since the 1980s, it has dominated western politics, underpinning governance, influencing culture, and leaving its indelible mark across society. During this time its core tenets were rarely challenged and only its peripheral aspects tweaked. The 2008 financial crash, however, changed this, shaking confidence in an ideology whose name, up until that point, was rarely ever spoken. With the loss of savings, skyrocketing inequality and falling living standards that followed, people wanted answers and began to question the political system that had facilitated such a disaster.
Pros and Cons of Being A College Professor
The Benefits of Being a College Professor One of the biggest pros is the freedom that it offers you in terms of research. Once you are senior enough, you can choose which projects to work on and which methodologies you employ. Few other jobs can match this level of intellectual freedom, and it is undoubtedly one of the perks of being a professor. Alongside freedom, is the joy of teaching, which, with the right group, can be endlessly interesting. The beauty of teaching is often – somewhat counter intuitively – the learning. Engaging young ambitious students with learning materials, and seeing what novel angles they take when approaching them can be highly stimulating, to say nothing of how rewarding it can be. Who, for instance, get's to say that they shape and inspire the next generation of academics? Another big plus is the working hours that academia can offer, which are frequently more flexible than in other professions. If, for example, you are a young parent who needs to leave the office early to pick up a child from school, workarounds can often be found, and your job can be made to fit around home life. Sabbaticals are another possibility. Many senior professors will, at some point in their career, arrange to take off few months, maybe even a year, from their regular teaching duties so that they can go and research in a different university and country. Others sometimes go even further, and step away from teaching entirely to work on writing a book, for example, all the while knowing that they can return to their position once they are done. And finally, on the way to becoming a professor there are many opportunities for travel. You can find jobs in many places all over the world, and you can travel to new places for conferences or research visits. If you enjoy exploring new places and getting to know new cultures, languages, and cuisines, then working as a professor offers many chances for you to develop those interests. The Negatives of Being a College Professor One of the biggest issues with being a college professor is that because there are a large number of highly qualified academics competing for a small number of professorship jobs, they are highly competitive. Even a talented and hard-working researcher who has published extensively and has teaching experience may not ever manage to land a permanent professor job. This low supply and high demand can lead to poor job security: researchers who are waiting to land a professorship role often feel compelled to take on a series of temporary jobs with contracts ranging from 6 months to a few years. This insecurity is stressful, and means that you have to be constantly vigilant about finding and applying for new roles. It certainly is not for everyone. If you do successfully get a permanent job as a professor, there is also the issue of compensation. Professors are by no means poorly paid, and they typically earn enough to live comfortably and to raise a family. However, someone with the level of skill and experience that a professor has could almost certainly earn much more money in the private sector. This problem is then compounded by the last issue on this list: as a professor expect long hours. As we discussed before, hours do tend to be flexible, however, it is still (too) frequently expected that professors will work both in the evenings and on the weekends. In some cases, it can even be difficult for them to take the vacation days which they have earned, as there is just too much work, with deadlines making things additionally tricky. In order to remain at the front of the profession, you will likely have to work many hours each week, and sacrifice time spent with family, friends, and pursuing your hobbies. Unperturbed? Check out our professor jobs here.
If you're thinking about which direction to take your research career, one possibility is the professor route, teaching and researching in a university context. This is one of the most desirable jobs among young academics, and something that people often strive for. But what are the pros and cons of working as a college professor?
The carriers must pay attention to their passport validity An erection of a harder border between the UK and EU involves not only changes in customs work, fees and tax calculations, and other money-related issues, but a lot of small details, many of which were previously ignored by carriers, and which are now critically important. For example, the validity periods of ID documents and the amount of time UK drivers can spend in the EU, and vice versa, are of newfound significance. As stated on the official UK government website, UK drivers that enter the EU must have a passport that is valid for at least six months. Every UK citizen can stay in the EU without a visa on condition that he/she does not spend more than 90 days in the EU over a 180-day period. This means that carriers must calculate how many days their employees (drivers) have spent in the EU at any given time. The 90 day countdown begins as soon as you cross the UK/EU border. From the 1st of October citizens of EU, EEZ countries and Switzerland will need to present their passports to enter the UK. ID cards will no longer be considered a valid travel document. The number of documents required to cross the UK/EU border has also significantly increased. From the 1st of January the movement of goods across the UK/EU border in either direction are considered exports and imports simultaneously. This means that all documents related to transport and the movement of goods from one area to another must be filled and completed. Free movement of goods has ended. This will create a huge amount of bureaucracy for British ports and airports since all cargo from Europe goes through them. Goods from the UK, on the other hand, can go in various directions, distributing the workload of document inspection. <11an>limit:2;categories:jobs|courses|conferences;disciplines:Politics|International Economics (JEL F)</11an> Same old story During the first days of January, it quickly became clear that none of the parties involved with the ports were completely prepared for the new order – institutions, cargo operators, carriers, export/import companies. Nobody. Preparation for the 1st of January was also hindered by the chaos at the UK/EU border in December, which was caused by the EU closing its borders with the UK due to the fear of spreading the new COVID-19 type. Businesses felt the consequences of Brexit in the first week on January: food deliveries were delayed due to issues with customs documents, logistics companies stopped sending goods, while some retailers found out that their delivery chains were obsolete. After ten years in close cooperation, UK and EU carriers were suddenly forced to learn a lot in a very short time. In early January, The New York Times reported that the European delivery company, DPD, was going to stop sending packages from the UK to the EU for a period to give it time to figure out new cross-border systems. At the same time, the retailer Marks & Spencer announced that due to the border crossing issues, its stores in Paris would not receive deliveries of fresh salad and other food items from the UK, apologising to their customers for the limited availability of goods. First to crack were the seafood (crustacean) producers and suppliers. On 18th of January, they came to Westminster to protest the additional bureaucracy caused by BREXIT, which had caused delays of cargo deliveries to EU, and which had resulted in a lot of damaged goods and significant losses. Producers of crustaceans have calculated that delivery to clients now requires 48+ hours, while previously it took only 24 hours. According to Venture Seafood director, Garry Hodgson, representatives of his company were delayed for 30 hours in France because they were obliged to fill out 400 forms for one cargo of crustaceans on its way to Spain. Before Brexit, most deliveries required a document of supply, but now each shipment needs an export health certificate, fishing certificate, customs permit, and safety documents. In addition, any carrier of mixed or combined cargo can be held at the border due to a single box having improper documentation. Because of this the importers have started to pay additional fees for empty trucks to ensure that goods travelling through the Eurotunnel are delivered on time. This has resulted in partially empty trucks moving between countries. It’s also increased the number of trucks on the roads, because two or even three trucks now transport a cargo that could previously have been transported by a single truck. While waiting for the chaos on the borders to subside, many EU carriers reduced or even stopped their deliveries to the UK, a moratorium that resulted in many empty trucks returning from the UK to the EU. The companies were willing to pay for the trucks to return empty because it was cheaper than getting stuck for 4-5 days in another country. How will Brexit affect the shipping industry? Right now, no one can confidently answer this question. Experts are busy studying data and making estimates, and unfortunately none are optimistic. For example, a survey by the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply shows that in January drivers spent 3-5% more time at the UK border than before Brexit. The experts warn that the delays will likely only increase and that this will create real problems both for the carriers and manufacturers of fresh products. Survey results also showed that more than a half of UK companies that import or export goods to EU had delayed deliveries in January, mainly, due to additional paperwork. Transporeon, a German logistics software company, tracks cargo truck movement in Europe in real time. The Live Tracker summarizes GPS data and is able to show how much time trucks spend in lines at each point of crossing. The executive director of the company Stephan Sieberi stated that: “a truck has value only if it moves”. If every day 10,000 trucks spend an additional hour at the border, it means that 10,000 working hours have been lost. “Waiting time increase by 5-10% in the port of Dover is a significant indicator for the logistics services providers”, said Sieberi. In the middle of February the BBC stated that the British government thought the worst had passed and that the total cargo flow had reached the levels of the previous year. BBC data showed that outgoing train traffic in the beginning of February was at 98% compared to traffic in February last year, while incoming land vehicle traffic reached 99% compared to last year. Approximately 80-90% of trucks arrive at the border prepared for the new situation. In January and February, truck traffic from Kent to the EU, including ferries and through Eurotunnel, reached 67% and 82% compared to the 2020. Ferry companies, however, do not keep track of empty returning trucks, and some estimates suggested that approximately 50% of trucks returning to the EU were empty. French sources speculated that as much as 60% of the returning trucks could have been empty. Before Brexit, the number of empty trucks never exceeded 30%. It is obvious that the changes brought about by Brexit and the unusual effects of COVID-19 will continue to affect the shipping industry, making it imperative that all parties pay close attention to the current guidelines, and ensure that they are ready to make quick decisions should things change. Entrepreneur, Rolands Peterson, is an economic, transport and logistics expert. He pays particular attention to developments in the global economy.
2021 began not only with an understanding that COVID-19 restrictions would likely continue for some time, but that the effects of Brexit – Great Britain leaving European Union – would also start to be felt. That Brexit would bring about changes to the UK/EU border was known for months. And yet, when it happened, most of the carriers and state institutions were not ready, creating (or rather, extending) the chaos in ports and near the Eurotunnel.
Urban, Rural and Transportation Economics (JEL R)
Best Open Source Software for Economics Graphing and Plotting
1. Gnuplot Gnuplot is one of the best-established graphing tools, popular among intermediate and advanced users. Available cross-platform for Windows, Linux and Mac, its primary function is the visualization of mathematical data and functions. Over the years its functions have diversified so that it is now usable for the visual display of all kinds of scientific data, in both two-and three-dimensional plots. It is a command line program, so some amount of programming knowledge is required. However, having been in use for many years (since 1986), there is extensive documentation and advice on using the program which can be found online. 2. Matplotlib Matplotlib is another popular option for economists looking for tools to aid in the visual display of their results. It is a 2D Python library for plotting which produces particularly attractive figures, and the library can be used in Python scripts or be run on web application serves. This library is a good choice for anyone familiar with the statistical software package Matlab, as the Matplotlib interface is similar, making it easy to learn. The default style of the graphs produced by Matplotlib is attractive and polished, requiring less tweaking than those produced by Gnuplot. However, Matplotlib works only with Python, whereas Gnuplot can work with other programming languages too. 3. R R is already popular among statisticians and scientists working in data-heavy fields for statistical analysis in addition to graphing. It uses a command-line interface, thus requiring some degree of technical ability, but once mastered is a powerful tool for data analysis and can be very beneficial for an economist. There are a wide range of graph types available in both 2D and 3D formats, which is beneficial for finding the perfect format for displaying your data. However, while the default graph style produced by R is functional, it requires some work to make the produced graphs look more elegant. R is an excellent plotting option for the economist working with a large data set, particularly if they are already familiar with the programming language. If you want to take advantage of the advanced features of plotting with R but are intimidated by the command line, then R Commander can be a great help – it is a graphical user interface for R which is designed to be accessible for novices. 4. Gephi A further possibility is Gephi, an visualization tool for the exploration of networks and complex systems. It is most known as a social network analysis tool for visualising the social relationships between individuals, but it also has applications for economic research. Alongside delivering network metrics and calculations, Gephi offers a high degree of design control enabling users to build high quality graphics suitable for publication and poster display. As it is Java-based it runs cross-platform, and although it requires some technical knowledge of network analysis, the user experience is fairly accessible. An alternative tool for these kinds of data sets is NodeXL, an open-source plug-in for Microsoft Excel which allows the analysis of social network data with Excel, and is more suitable for beginners. Each of these tools can help you to communicate your data more effectively by presenting it in an attractive and carefully-designed format. Software ranges from the more technical, command-line based tools like Gnuplot and R, which are very powerful but require more extensive technical knowledge, to GUI-based programs like R Commander or NodeXL which are more accessible to novice users. Also important to consider is the type of data which you wish to visualize; large data sets are better suited to heavy-duty tools like R, whereas social network data is better served by more specific tools like Gephi or NodeXL. From this wide range of tools you can find the perfect open-source solution for plotting and graphing in order to make your data shine.
A great way to make your presentations or papers slick and memorable is to improve your graphs and diagrams. The standard graphs produced by software such as Excel or SPSS can convey the required information, but tend to lack style as these tools have limited customisation options. Other software exists for the singular purpose of configuring your diagrams, including many which are open-source and hence freely available. As an economist, it's important to make sure your graphs are looking as good as possible, as they are essential for winning over and keeping the attention of your audience.
1. Apply broadly, but only if you’re really interested When applying to college many people send out dozens of applications, including ones to universities they aren't even particularly interested in attending. While at undergraduate level these 'safety' schools might be a good idea in order to guarantee you'll get an education (although there's also an argument for taking another year out to improve your grades and reapplying), at the graduate level this isn't necessarily the best strategy. <11an>limit:3;categories:PhD Programs;disciplines:Economics</11an> Yes, applying to only your two dream departments is an extreme gamble, but it's probably better to put your all into applying to those places, as well as maybe one or two backups you'd still be happy to attend, in order to ensure your most important applications get the lion's share of your attention and time. That way you can really put your heart into your applications, which will shine through and likely help land you a spot in the program of your dreams. Moreover, if you’re actually interested in a program at the outset, you’re much more likely to be able to maintain that momentum and ultimately work your way through to a completed dissertation. If you attend a school you don't particularly like, and especially if your program isn't exactly what you wanted to do, you may find yourself getting demotivated down the line, and a PhD is big jump up in terms of work quantity and self-discipline than even a Master's degree. 2. Spend ample time on your dissertation proposal Although a thoroughly researched dissertation proposal is a key component of many applications, it remains conspicuously absent from others. Yet, whether you are asked to include a 10-page proposal or simply a paragraph highlighting your specific interests, this description is often the crux of what separates an admitted PhD candidate from one who is left wondering why they were rejected. The proposal you write in your application will possibly have little to do with the research you will actually conduct - many change their research several times over the first few months, and your tutor will help you narrow down and improve your topic. That being said, the clarity of focus you have in your proposal, along with the reasons you give for wanting to work with specific professors, can make all the difference. So don't be fooled into writing off the thesis proposal element of your application because you know your research topic will change anyway. Instead, use this as a chance to show how passionate and committed you are to your discipline while also showing off your great writing, research and organizational skills, as well as showing that you're familiar with the research interests of your chosen tutors. Speaking of which... 3. Familiarize yourself with the professors you’d like to work with Even if your PhD application does not specifically ask you to list professors with whom you would like to work, an awareness of the research being done in the department to which you are applying and a readiness to talk about how you could add to it will give you a firm leg up in case you are called in for an interview. Additionally, drawing connections between your own research interests and the work of specific professors demonstrates that you have done your homework – it shows you are familiar with the department and can offer a detailed argument for why you would be a good addition to it. A good tactic is to get in touch with potential advisors before you apply. This can be a great idea because they can give you tips on your proposal before you formally apply, and can tell you before whether they'd be interested in attaching themselves to your research. Remember, you'll be working a lot with your tutor in order to make this the best piece of academic writing you've ever done, so they have to be excited by it too. Saying this, some programs specifically ask you not to contact anyone individually until you’ve already made the cut, so look at the application guidelines carefully and choose to send that email or not based on what they suggest. 4. Highlight relevant qualifications and don’t dwell on those that aren’t Many young people's academic and career journeys do not follow a perfectly straight trajectory. And this is fine. In fact, it can arguably add to the breadth of your knowledge base and make you a more well-rounded candidate than those who have only gained experience in one specific area. Thus, in your application, do not apologize for a hodgepodge CV. Instead, draw a map for the admissions team by highlighting the interconnectedness of various positions you have held, while simply omitting those that may not be relevant. There is no reason to explain past jobs or studies that are not related to your current interests, and doing so might draw attention away from all of your other qualifications that make you a great candidate. Yet, if questions arise then be prepared to discuss your winding path and offer sincere and confident reasons for why you’ve made the choices you have – giving emphasis to how they’ve shaped your current interests, and how they can (if they can) help you moving forward. 5. Thoroughly prepare for your interview If you make it through to an interview, be it in person or via Skype or telephone, make sure you have a clear understanding of what type of interview it will be and prepare yourself accordingly. Don’t be afraid to ask for as many details as possible – will it be a one-on-one interview or will you be addressing a group of professors? Should you prepare a presentation or is it more of a casual conversation? The more information you have beforehand the better you can prepare, thus minimizing the risk of being caught off guard. Moreover, once you’re in the interview you should also come prepared with more detailed questions, both to show your interest in the program and to help you figure out if it really is a good fit for you. And don't forget the obvious stuff: dress smartly, be polite (thank yous and pleased to meet yous), and remember a smile can go a long way.
Whether you are applying to a structured program like those typically found in the United States, an independent research PhD like those in much of Europe and elsewhere, or a hybrid of the two, the first step is to gather your thoughts (and paperwork) in an effort to convince the admissions board that you are the most qualified and motivated candidate for the position. Regardless of location or discipline, your application will almost certainly include a personal statement, transcripts, copies of your previous degrees and letters of recommendation. If you plan to start your PhD application this autumn, download our free guide "How to successfully apply to a PhD in Economics".
Will a PhD help my career? Will doing a PhD boost your career options? Absolutely, but with some caveats. If you want to work in academia, for example in research or as a professor, then doing a PhD is essential. Having a PhD can also help you to land jobs in industry, for example working as an analyst or as an actuary. When applying for these jobs, your PhD is both a demonstration of your prior experience in running a research project, and an example of your motivation and self-discipline. Our Salary Report found, however, that while the gender pay gap is closing for PhD positions, women still earn less than men, and for senior positions, there still exists a 'glass ceiling' for women, meaning they are less likely to be chosen for these roles. Yes, the direction of travel may be the right one, but we are clearly still travelling with the handbrake on. A PhD is also not essential for every job. If you know that you want to work in a field such as finance or accounting, then real-world job experience can be just as important when applying for jobs as academic qualifications. And there are some employers who will be put off by a candidate with a PhD who is applying for entry-level jobs, finding them to be overqualified. It's not a good idea to do a PhD just because you think it will help you generally to get a better job in the long run, as this may not be the case. The time you spend studying is time that could be spent accruing work experience. So before you make your decision really consider the specific role that you want or the field in which you want to work, and then see if a PhD would be helpful for that career path. <11an>limit:3;categories:PhD Programs;disciplines:Economics</11an> How can I fund a PhD? One of the most important issues to consider when thinking about a possible PhD is the question of funding. As working on a PhD is generally a full-time job, you will need funding to cover your living costs and other expenses. There are a number of sources of funding: you might get funding directly from the research budget of your supervisor, or the department in which you do your PhD; you might get funding from your university; or you might get funding from an external body such as the Wellcome Trust. If you are pursuing a PhD abroad, for example if you are Dutch but are doing a PhD in Germany, then you may be able to apply for funding from both the Dutch and German governmental bodies, doubling your chance of successfully receiving funding. You might also get partial funding from several of these sources. Some students are so keen to do a PhD that they wish to start even if they do not have any funding. This, however, is not advisable. The amount of work which a PhD requires is immense (at least three years full time, often more), and agreeing to work this much for no payment is a recipe for disaster. If you can't get funding now, it's better to wait and apply for more funding rather than risking starting your project unfunded. Is a PhD the right option for me? You should also think about whether doing a PhD would suit you personally. Those who are interested in doing a PhD tend to be those who are academically inclined and who already enjoyed – hopefully thoroughly – doing a Bachelor's degree and a Master's degree. Those are certainly good qualities to have; however, a PhD is a rather different kettle of fish. A PhD requires you to come up with your own ideas and to work independently – essentially running your own research project. This is terrific for someone who values independence and exploratory learning, but can be a difficult adjustment for those who are more used to having strict guidelines and structure imposed on to them. For this reason, it's common for people to wait a few years after completing their graduate degree before doing a PhD, so they can gain some experience in managing their own time. Another requirement for PhD students is a degree of self-confidence and assurance about both their work and themselves. Academia is a demanding environment and students often complain that supervisors give more negative than positive feedback. To be successful in a PhD, you'll need to be able to take criticism without becoming discouraged. It's also not uncommon for supervisors to be extremely demanding, so in order to preserve your life outside of work, you'll need to be an effective self-advocate. This is another area in which a few years of work experience can help to build up your confidence, making you a better PhD candidate in the process. Is your PhD project right for you? Sometimes people can get caught up in the idea of doing a PhD without really thinking about whether they should study the particular project they have chosen. There are generally two ways to choose a PhD project: either you apply for a specific role as a PhD student in an existing lab or group, in which case your project will be largely assigned to you by your supervisor; or you come up with your own project idea and submit this proposal to a grad school or department. The first path is safer in that it involves a project which has been chosen by people with a great deal of experience of PhDs and the field, so you can be confident that the project is realistically achievable and will contribute usefully to the field. The second path allows you to follow your own passions and to investigate your own ideas, but is riskier because there is a greater chance that your project is too big to complete in a reasonable time frame, that your experiment might not work, or that the project might not be perceived as useful by others in the field. Take time to consider not only if you want to do a PhD in general, but also whether you want to do this specific PhD. Get as much feedback as you can from supervisors, friends doing PhDs, former teachers, and mentors about your project ideas and whether they would make an achievable and worthwhile project. Finally, be realistic about your interests and strengths – if you've never liked statistics then doing a project heavily based on data analysis is unlikely to make you happy. Ideally your project should be a subject that inspires and excites you, and to which you feel like you could make a valuable contribution with your ideas. Are the institution, department, and supervisors right for your PhD project? Another big factor in how your PhD will pan out is the environment in which you will work. Doing a PhD can be isolating and you need people around you who will support and help you out. Some academic groups are small and insular, others are large and diverse, but in either case you need to be among people who understand your work and will give you the time that you need. It's hard to know in advance if your supervisor will be difficult, but you can get a good idea by talking to other PhD students who have them as a supervisor and listening to their experiences. Many PhD students will be happy to share this information with you if you are thinking about applying to the same supervisor. Finally, don't feel as if your only opportunity to do a PhD is the program that you apply to first. You can apply to several programs at the same time and see which interview process excites you the most, or you can wait until you find the right supervisor or institution which will make your experience more enjoyable.
Taking the step towards doing a PhD is a big decision, and one that shouldn't be made without the proper research and consideration. Once taken, however, it can be an extremely valuable experience and one that can set you up nicely in the future. Here we consider some of the things you should definitely think about before taking the plunge.
Increasingly sidelined, the one-time arbiter of sensible, down-to-earth politics, has seen its stock plummet and the centre-ground left barren, sparsely populated by members of a fading political establishment. As Mehdi Hasan has observed, ‘labels like 'centrist' and 'moderate,' which common sense tells us should reflect the views of a majority… have come to be applied to those who represent minority interests and opinions”. But why? How exactly has this come to pass? And where, if anywhere, does the future of the centre lie? <11an>limit:2;categories:jobs|courses|conferences;disciplines:Politics</11an> A very brief and incomplete history Like the monikers ‘left’ and ‘right’, the ‘centre’, as a political orientation, finds its roots in the French Revolution and the seating arrangements of the short-lived National Assembly. It designated those that sat between the high clergy and wealthy on the right of the chair, and the lower clergy and poorer folks on the left. It was there that contrasting ideas met, were mediated, and (sometimes) found synthesis. In the centuries that followed, the ‘centre’ was sporadically appropriated as both a signifier and epithet. To a modern, anglophone ear, though, it’s mostly associated with the politics of the 1950s and 90s. President Dwight Eisenhowever was among its most strident torchbearers, committed to a politics he called ‘the middle ground’: socially-minded, yet limited governance that despised communism. Riding on his coattails, was UK Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, whose political career was grounded in a similar set of principles he codified in, ‘The Middle Way’. Positioned between ‘socialism and pure capitalism’, it was underpinned by the enduring belief that ‘quiet, calm deliberation disentangles every knot’. This period of supremacy abruptly ended in the 1960s, when centrism fell victim to the political convulsions that swept the west. In a context of counterculture and revolution, the considered nature for which it was known, looked staid and out of touch. Chastened, its proponents retreated from power, licking their wounds. They would remain out of favour for some time, forced to watch as on both sides of the Atlantic high-office swapped between left and right. Margaret Thatcher would remind centrists of their diminished status, goading them ‘for abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies’. The emergence, in the 90s, of ‘third way’ advocates, Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, marked the triumphant return and the advent of centrism’s most celebrated period. Despite hailing from nominally leftist parties, both ran on economic platforms promising public spending limits and balanced budgets. Barack Obama and David Cameron - their ideological successors - would later take up the mantle. So what does it actually stand for? The centre has always been defined by what it’s in the centre of, and, thus, has shifted in response to broader political trends. In the early 60s, it was against the anti-war left; in the 80s it opposed Thatcher; and now, in 2020, it can't stand Trump. It knows well what it isn't; and less well what it is. This can - and often does - manifest in negatively framed messaging ill-suited for the catchy soundbites required of modern campaigning. Joe Biden’s election promise to ‘return to normalcy’, is illustrative - devoid of a forward vision, it’s failing to get pulses racing. In spite of its unfixed state, centrism has become a byword for moderation and triangulation, of working across the aisle. Its recent proponents have typically been fiscally conservative, socially liberal, committed to open borders on trade, and invariably hard-lined on law and order. The scholar, Bo Winegard, has attempted, more explicitly, to codify its core tenets in his ‘Centrist Manifesto’, claiming that ‘political progress is achieved by caution, temperance and compromise’, and urging against ‘dramatic alterations that [could] upset a reasonably successful social order’ - the words ‘reasonably successful’ doing a lot of work. Which brings us to the pertinent question: in a world of Trump, Brexit, and rising temperatures what role, if any, can this amalgam of principles expect to play? Centrism today In the clamoring of current discourse, centrists stake claim to the only escape route away from the bickering and bellicosity. Uniquely positioned above the petty point-scoring and time-wasting agendas of the extremes, and guided, according to Winegard, by a mantra of ‘careful consideration and slow implementation’, they alone can ensure a return to sensible politics. Abstractly, and without context, this offer sounds persuasive, indeed, it feels close to common sense. Applied to the current moment, however, and its shortcomings come into focus. Firstly, the things in which centrism traffics - moderation, incremental change, etc. - lose their appeal in crises. For in hard times like these, it can be difficult to separate suggestions of pragmatic tinkering from attempts to preserve the status quo. And to many the status quo is part of the crisis - it’s complicit. Insisting on the existence of moral equivalences on all sides - a core centrist belief central to compromise - has also drawn ire for being a privileged position available only to those insulated from the sharp-end of inequality and the climate crisis. Without this protection - that growing numbers are also deprived - it follows that their calls for change would be far more urgent. Consequently, assurance is increasingly found in pledges that acknowledge the scale of what is faced, however extreme, and commit to decisive, transformative measures. Calls to ‘drain the swamp’ and demands for ‘medicare for all’ speak to this feeling, and have gained traction at opposite ends of the spectrum because they accept the gravity of people’s concerns and promise to tackle them head-on. Whether its widespread political alienation or concerns over healthcare, the language, and implied commitment, sound appropriate in scope. This is what centrism runs into time and again. On today’s biggest questions - generational indebtedness, housing crises, spiralling inequality, job insecurity - questions that threaten opportunity, livelihoods, lives even, it’s proposals sound insufficient in scale. How, for instance, does the politics of moderation propose to shift the US$1 trillion debt from the shoulders of American millennials? Is it even possible for the ‘slow implementation’ of anything to address the rampant inequality that’s dividing communities? And what of the most important question of all: climate breakdown? The threat posed by the climate is existential and can only be navigated through radical action, as part of a long-term vision - this is roundly accepted. With the stakes so perilously high, relying on a political tradition steeped in a culture of compromise may well be foolhardy. For the planet to survive in any habitable form overhaul is needed, an overhaul of energy, of transport systems, of consumption. Despite its flaws, the Green New Deal (GND) was an attempt at this, legislation proportionate to the size of the problem, climate policy informed by scientists demands for ‘war-like’ mobilisation. Many centrists, however, balked at the idea, Nancy Pelosi called it ‘too broad’ and the Blue Dog Coalition of Democrats would rather prohibit a federal deficit running in peacetime, making the GND, and a whole host of redistributive investment programs, impossible. A choice beckons Amidst political polarisation and burning of the planet, the future of centrism is unsure. Its failure to formulate coherent responses to the biggest issues of the day has left it flirting with irrelevance, and representing, as Hasan commented, only minority interests and opinions. To guarantee its future, it has two options: double-down and continue to force old methods on new issues, or recognise its self-imposed limitations and think bigger. Now is not the time for caution, but for assertive action. To miss this opportunity is to perish. Header Image Credit: ChameleonsEye on Shutterstock (licensed image - editorial use - copyright)
The current moment is one defined by crisis. It can be found everywhere: in the climate, economy, mental health, even in democracy. It’s so ubiquitous as to have almost become the new norm. Amid the chaos, politics has struggled to keep up, its landscape is in permanent shift, its rulebook long thrown away. New formations have emerged, metastasized, sometimes died, and occasionally taken over - developments often surprising and hard to make sense of. What’s clear, though, is that polarisation has set in. From Bernie to Bolsanaro, from Modi to Make America Great Again, the voices now heard, the names that fill newspaper columns, are reminding us just how wide the political spectrum is. For many, it's a terrifying prospect, for others, it’s a thrilling and necessary reset. For the centre, as developments in the US and UK are showing, it may well spell death.
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There are now more online learning options than ever, including courses which are - thank you Internet - absolutely free. Whether you want to prepare for your upcoming university course, need to pick up some extra skills to help with your job, or you are just interested in a subject and want to learn more, there will be an online course out there that can help you achieve your goals. Particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced many of us to spend more time indoors and less time on campus or at evening classes, online courses can be a great way to carry on your education while minimising risk. Here are some of the best the internet has to offer in the area of statistics and data analysis.
Improving Fundamentals of Econometrics with Online Practice Tests
Getting to grips with the fundamentals of econometrics – where the field of economics meets and overlaps with the field of statistics – is often a daunting prospect. The age-old maxim that practice makes perfect is at least as applicable to econometrics as to any other skill. Reaching a useful level of proficiency requires a good deal, and likely several years, of hard graft and persistent learning. Indeed, students need to get their heads around the basics of data analysis and core statistical methods, as well as gain confidence in the use of more advanced panel data and regression models. For those teaching econometrics at university, the challenge often lies, like in many subjects, in helping students grasp the basics of the discipline. This has traditionally been achieved through the classic mixture of textbooks, set journal articles, seminars and lectures. But in a reality consisting of large class sizes and limited contact time between tutors and students, the extent to which a professor of econometrics can effectively monitor and support the progress of each student is often very restricted. And that is before even considering the added challenge presented by the 2020/21 (22,23...) global pandemic and the accompanying social and academic distancing. One professor at Hamburg University and Universität Potsdam, Thomas Siedler, has developed a new online resource to help econometrics lecturers and students alike tackle the challenge of practicing and gauging students’ progress in the fundamentals of econometrics. As an experienced economics lecturer with a focus on microeconometrics, Prof. Siedler initially developed mcEmpirics for students on his own econometrics courses at Hamburg University. After excellent feedback, in early 2020 he opened it up to anyone with access to the internet. As with most good ideas, the principle of mcEmpirics is simple. It offers a quiz-based format for students, with each test compiled from a pool of over 800 questions. These cover core econometrics topics, including questions about the statistics software package STATA, and questions based on key econometrics textbooks, with a focus on applied econometrics. Some of the undergraduate favourites covered include publications by Joshua Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, Jeffrey M Wooldridge, and James Stock & Mark Watson, names most econometrics teachers are familiar with. Recognition of the value of mcEmpirics for economics students came quickly, with funding being pledged in April 2020 by the Claussen-Simon Stiftung. This is a charitable funding body that supports creative and innovative projects in the areas of digitization, networking, and coaching. The aim of the funding is to help further quick and effective solutions for education, especially for remote learning and digital teaching, given the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. The foundation clearly saw mcEmpirics as a major and valuable contribution to this goal in the field of econometrics. Individual users can access all quizzes for a small fee (€2 to €3, approx. $2.50 - $3.50) per month, specifying which topic, keyword, or book chapter they would like to focus on. The site then generates a multiple-choice quiz. After attempting the quiz, users see explanations and suggestions for further reading so they can dig deeper and revise econometrics topics they struggled with. As it has gained popularity, mcEmpirics has expanded beyond its low-cost individual subscription model for students (although this is still available), offering an additional option for university economics departments. The new campus licences allow department heads or individual lecturers to integrate the practice tests on mcEmpirics into their own courses. It also enables econometrics tutors to develop customized tests based on their own curricula, using both the library of questions included, as well as adding their own. Additionally, the tool enables tutors to set deadlines and collect results centrally, download results and view the progress of individual students as the course proceeds. In this way, mcEmpirics is helping economics departments and professors of econometrics set their students meaningful tasks in the context of the difficult teaching landscape of a worldwide pandemic. Furthermore, the possibility to track progress through regular semi-formal assessments helps tutors gain an overview of how well their students are absorbing the material. Given the challenges for university departments and tutors in every subject, economics included, the prospect of a simple and accessible tool that can effectively support student learning is an appealing one indeed. As a final note, here at INOMICS we have had some fun playing with mcEmpirics over the past few weeks and comparing our results within the team. With a free-trial available (three free quizzes) it is certainly worth taking a few minutes to check it out.
A new initiative from Hamburg University, Universität Potsdam, and the Berlin School of Economics is helping economics students get ahead in the fundamentals of econometrics. The online tool mcEmpirics offers econometrics practice tests for students and is now being rolled out for whole economics departments with new campus-licenses. Especially with the challenges of remote teaching resulting from the ongoing global pandemic, mcEmpirics is gaining notice as a digital solution for economics students and teachers worldwide.
However simple sounding this choice may be, the question is, in fact, a tricky one. What’s even meant by each term? In the current polarised political climate, where both are bandied about and often weaponised, definitions have blurred. Deplorable in the eyes of some, the roadmap to utopia to others. Many are understandably confused. What should one make of being branded a champagne-sipping socialist? Or a capitalist pig? To make sense of it all, we have delineated each term as concisely as possible. Meaning next time the political barbs start flying, you will at least know how offended to be when one comes your way. <11an>limit:2;categories:jobs|courses|conferences;disciplines:General Economics (JEL A)</11an> Capitalism Of the myriad differences that distinguish capitalism from socialism it’s the level of government involvement in the economy that’s most fundamental. The capitalist model is premised on the private ownership of the means of production and property. The economy relies on open, free markets whose forces - the so-called ‘invisible hand’ - determine prices, incomes, wealth and the distribution of goods. In theory, unencumbered competition then drives innovation - in technology and practice - and encourages companies to make the best products they can as cheaply as possible. Over time, therefore, products improve in quality, while becoming cheaper. ‘Inefficient’ companies that fail to keep up, as in, their products are relatively expensive or poor in quality, are quickly usurped and go out of business. This allows resources to flow to other, more ‘efficient’ areas - a process Joseph Schumpeter called ‘creative destruction’. Meanwhile, the consumer is ensured maximum choice at the minimum price - again, in theory at least. And this is what lies at capitalism’s heart: the promise of meritocracy, of efficiency winning out. It underpins the whole system. This leads neatly to another key distinction from socialism: equality, or, in capitalism’s case, the lack thereof. Under capitalism, inequality is essential. It serves as a driving force, incentivising work with the lure of what could be. The spoils are there, you just need a good work ethic and the right ideas. And who decides which ideas are right? The market. It’s this cold, unbiased mechanism of relentless wheat-from-chaff-separation that drives economic development and moves us forward. Socialism A socialist economy, on the other hand, is driven by a vastly different logic. Through greater governmental intervention, it seeks to (re) allocate resources in a more egalitarian way. In part, this is ensured by state ownership– as opposed to individual– of the major means of production. As the main employer, the state can then determine wages, working hours, and preserve a certain standard of working conditions as it sees fit. Employment rates, thus, are not vulnerable to spasms of the market, meaning full employment can be guaranteed - in some socialist societies that is. In others, individual ownership of property and enterprise is permitted, but is accompanied by high taxes, especially on the rich, and tighter, more stringent government control, to help avoid exploitative practices from developing. To purists, this is no longer socialism, but rather a form of social democracy. In America, it’s tyranny. Where capitalism favours efficiency, socialism focuses on equality, a channeling of wealth from the rich to the poor, and the establishment and preservation of an even playing field - definitely in opportunity, and occasionally in outcome. This is achieved by various means including the state-led provision of healthcare, free at the point of use, price controls, higher taxes, and far more spending on public services. In practice In reality, most countries - even the US, the paragon of capitalist life - operate mixed economies, that is with economic elements of both capitalism and socialism. Therefore, the question playing out around the world is less a choice of one or the other, but more nuanced. Typically, it’s the pitting of greater public provision, in the form of healthcare, education and social security, typically funded by higher taxes (i.e socialist inclined policy), against tax cuts and a general retreat of the state out of the individual’s life (i.e free-market capitalist inclined policy). It's notable that in the majority of cases these proposals are made while accepting an overarching capitalist system. The extremes may be tweaked, but the fundamentals are normally left unquestioned. Header Image Credit: Stefan Malloch on Shutterstock (licensed image - copyright)
As claims go, Francis Fukuyama’s insistence that history’s run its course has aged rather badly. The ascent of China, the Great Recession, spiralling inequality across the West, and now COVID-19, have all, in their own way, undermined his notion that capitalist liberal democracy is the political endgame. If anything, political choice seems to be expanding. People are increasingly being offered the opportunity to continue with capitalism, occasionally of the nativist variety and sometimes strictly neoliberal, or, alternatively, to try a little socialism.
How COVID-19 has Affected Economists in the Global North and South
Overall, 36% of economists reported having been negatively affected by COVID professionally (excluding the turn to home-office), with 6% made redundant. Although this may be similar to comparable sectors, mapped geographically, the numbers tell another - depressingly familiar - story. Simply put, economists working in the Global South have suffered far higher levels of job loss, greater reductions in hours and salary, and have had more promotions postponed, than their Global North counterparts. The data is stark: 62% of economists in Africa, 56% in South Asia, and 42% in Caribbean, South & Central America, reported being negatively affected by the pandemic professionally, compared with just 23% in North America, and only 16% in Western Europe. Global inequality The International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) report ‘COVID-19 and the world of work’ makes it possible to place these figures among global labour market trends, and, thus, better understand the nuances of the economists’ experience. ILO research uses ‘working-hour losses’ as an aggregate indicator of COVID-19’s impact on the global labour market, and encompasses shorter hours, being employed but not working, being unemployed, and withdrawal from the labour force. With respect to the Global North/South divide, ILO data contains notable parallels to INOMICS’ survey, reporting that ‘lower-middle-income countries have been hardest hit’ and have endured ‘an estimated decline in working hours of 23.3% in the second quarter of the year’- the equivalent of 240 million full time jobs. This trend continued throughout the third quarter and is accounted for by greater prevalence of informal work, limited opportunities for teleworking, and general resource constraints. Unfortunately, because of unevenly distributed fiscal stimuli, its consequences are also set to worsen - the report expressing concern that ‘the estimated stimulus gap for low-income countries is less than 1% of the total value of the fiscal stimulus packages announced by high-income countries’. A diverging economic experience Where our results and the ILO’s report diverge, however, is among the regions in which employment disruption is at its most severe. For economists that is Africa and South Asia. But this bucks the global labour trend which has seen workers in Latin American and Caribbean countries worst affected, the region losing a full quarter of all working hours in the third quarter. In Central America alone, hours lost reached 30%. Moreover, ILO data reports that African continent sustained an 11.5% working hours loss in the third quarter, 3.5% more than Western Europe, and just 0.7% more than Northern Europe. Given that almost two thirds of economists in Africa reported being negatively affected by COVID, it would appear they are among the more disproportionally hit of the continent’s professions. Everything, though, remains in flux, making comprehensive analysis of COVID’s ongoing effect on the labour market a difficult process. With that said, INOMICS’ data, placed among that of the ILO, offers a glimpse of the regional discrepancy which underpins the economist’s experience, a discrepancy that, while fitting with larger trends, diverges in where job disruption is at its highest. It’s one that, here at INOMICS, we will continue to track. Complete Economics Salary Survey
The damage wrought by COVID, far from equalising, has been pointedly prejudiced. While the virus itself may struggle to differentiate between people, the world in which it operates has no such problem. Indeed, its structures have ensured COVID’s disruption of employment has fallen unevenly across regions - the experience of economists a case in point. Data from the forthcoming INOMICS’ Salary Report speaks to this directly, revealing the relationship between where one works - specifically in which country - and the level of vocational dislocation.
<11an>limit:2;categories:jobs|courses|conferences;disciplines:General Economics (JEL A)|Health, Education, and Welfare (JEL I)</11an> Fortunately, most economists - particularly researchers - have been able to home-office throughout the crisis, transitioning with some ease, with much of their work already reliant solely on access to a computer. This is reflected by almost two thirds of economists reporting that, besides the migration home, they’ve experienced no change to their work. In the words of one: ‘it’s all remained the same’. This, however, cannot be said of teachers, for whom the transition to online learning, while mostly possible, has invariably been a bumpy road. Capturing the prevailing mood, teachers described E-teaching as ‘difficult, time-consuming and boring’, bemoaned their lack of ‘technical help’, and spoke of increased ‘inefficiency’ that had led to ‘an increased workload’. Students mirrored this frustration, though for different reasons. They cited reduced tutor contact hours as a disruptive influence, and were also dismayed by the closure of libraries. For many, though, it’s the future that is the greatest cause of concern. The scarcity of job opportunities was reported multiple times as a primary consequence of the pandemic, a concern expressed often by those on the verge of graduation, or early in their careers. This development will be especially worrisome for those straddled with enormous student loan debt (American student loan debt stands $1.5 trillion) who now face an increasingly precarious future. The prospect of which, according to testimonies from this cohort, has prompted increases in ‘mental stress’, ‘anxiety’, and a fear of perpetual joblessness, all compounded by knowledge that, in certain areas, the worst of the pandemic could be yet to come. The demand for diminishing work was also noted to have negatively affected worker power, empowering the employer. Articulating this emerging reality, one economist predicted that ‘labor struggles for fair pay [would] continue in the long term’, while an economics PhD relayed, in slightly more dramatic terms, that labor relations at their workplace ‘were destroyed’. Another frequent story was that of ‘delayed promotions’, almost 10% of survey participants reporting a promotion postponed as a result of the pandemic. Epitomising this experience, one researcher explained that his promotion was ‘postponed because my research has stalled. I cannot go for visiting research stays in universities and research institutes locally and internationally. And without research, my work has been made redundant as I now do mostly teaching, lecturing and administrative work online from home.’ Such disillusion was not uncommon. A sizable number have also lost their jobs, around 6% of survey participants, and the prospect of this number increasing is having a significant effect, many noting a pervading ‘atmosphere of uncertainty’, aptly captured by one economist who spoke of the looming ‘threat of future redundancies’ that hovered over his workplace. Put in perspective, though, economics has, by-and-large, been able to work on through, placing it among the luckier industries. The discipline can also be both proud of the work it’s continued to produce and the role it’s assumed responding to the crisis. There’s little doubt - in the face of the pandemic economists have risen to the challenge. Complete Economics Salary Survey
That the world of work has radically changed we know, we see it before our eyes: kitchens have replaced offices; pajamas, suits; and housemates often now fill the space previously occupied by colleagues. But how have these changes - and others - been felt by economists around the world? Through a textual analysis undertaken in the INOMICS Salary Survey, we answer that question and, in doing so, paint an anecdotal picture of economists’ COVID experience.
Why you should be using a multi-channel marketing approach
Multi-channel marketing campaigns allow institutions to increase conversion rates by interacting with potential candidates (students, professors and researchers) at different stages of their decision process, using the best channel for that stage. For example, a candidate who has already visited your institution website is more likely to respond positively to a direct email campaign, while a young candidate who has not yet heard of your university/centre/company is more responsive to meeting representatives at a recruitment fair. Additionally, the investment in a multi-channel campaign is more controlled and reduces the risk of overspending on one channel. To be effective with a multi-channel campaign, it is necessary to set up goals, have a consistent message across the channels and implement a detailed system of analysis to be able to measure the return on investment from each channel in terms of quality of candidates, lead management and enrolments. Benefits of Multi-Channel Campaigns Better understanding of potential candidates thanks to better feedback: By using different channels, your organization can collect feedback and experience from different types of candidates. Additionally, platforms like social media are more likely to incentivize prospective candidates to communicate directly with your team, ask questions and contribute with ideas that will increase the value of your institution. Higher brand exposure: Looking for a new job or enrolling in a study program is a decision that is not taken overnight; on the contrary, it requires time and deep thinking. By advertising your opportunity directly on job boards or study program aggregators you will be targeting candidates who have taken a decision to make a change in their life or career. However, you are missing out on the opportunity to make an impression on passive candidates, not yet actively looking for your opportunity. Social media, blogs, apps, etc. can give you access to these passive candidates who will turn back to your institution once they feel ready to enrol. As a side effect you may also get an ambassador for your institution who will tell friends and colleagues about your opportunities. You can check here additional 10 tips to build a University brand online. Better budget distribution: A prospective student/employee who uses social media as their main job/program finding tool will not have the same profile as somebody who prefers online listings or email newsletters. Once your organization can identify the most effective channels to attract the most suitable candidates, you can then optimize your campaigns. Challenges of Multi-Channel Campaigns Effectiveness of your message: In a multi-channel campaign you do not only need consistency in your message but also to keep it effective. Regardless of the channel you use, the message should inspire people to take action and apply to your position, study program or conference. Detailed planned campaigns: The responsibilities with a multi-channel campaign do not stop once the message is out in different channels. Upon launching the campaigns, touch points with your prospective candidates need to be coordinated along with the setting-up of mini reminder campaigns per channel. Remember that the decision of enrolling in a new course or applying for a new job requires more than a one-time communication with the candidate. Results attribution: Previously we mentioned the need to have a detailed analysis system to measure the return on investment from each channel. It seems straight-forward to set up goals and a couple of key metrics per channel, however in realilty, to know what really triggers each enrolment can take time or need a personal follow-up. Depending on your budget, you may need to decide on approximate KPIs or to invest real time and effort knowing which channels brought your students, professors and researchers. Recommendation to Start Your Multi-Channel Recruitment Campaign Consolidate your database of leads: In order to manage your leads properly, it is important to have a single database of prospective candidates with the same information filled-in in their profiles. You could also add the source of the leads, in order to manage the conversion rates per source. There are multiple CRM systems available in the recruitment market; you just need to choose the right one according to your budget and expectations. Choose the marketing channels that you would like to use: The best way to choose the right marketing channels for your campaign starts with segmenting your market. By analyzing the profile of the ideal student for your program or ideal candidate for your position, and disclosing all touching points where your target audience interacts and consumes information, will help you to deliver your message effectively. Take into account lifestyles, hobbies, work routine of your target group. In this way you will find channels that offer a higher impact than traditional media. To explore more effective ways to target millennials, feel free to read further on how to market universities to a digital generation. Create consistency of messages and experience across all channels: The consistency of your message is highly important. Remember that regardless of the channel (social media, online catalogues, and email marketing, traditional media) you are competing for space in the mind of your target audience. Identify which are the selling points of your institution/program/job and which are the must-have attributes expected by your candidates. Be careful measuring results of your campaign: We have talked about the importance of measuring results and the challenge that this presents. The trick is to decide in advance the must-have and nice-to-have metrics. Decide which are the mandatory KPIs for decision-making and organize your team to collect them. For those metrics that are not listed in your mandatory KPIs, prepare yourself to step back in case they demand a lot of time and resources from your team Designing and implementing a multi-channel campaign can be a project that demands time and effort from you and your recruitment team. It may also seem to be expensive and it often requires resources that are not easily available at your institution. At INOMICS we have designed a special promotion to help your institution implement a successful multi-channel campaign. Thanks to our experience from last spring with the summer schools, we decided to implement our knowledge in content marketing, social media promotion and online listing to promote masters, PhDs, courses and online learning offers. From past campaigns, our customers attributed around 10% of the campaign results to our multichannel offer. If you are interested in booking a multichannel campaign for your program, you can contact us at info@inomics.com. Check INOMICS Multi-channel Offer
Multi-channel marketing is the practice of interacting with customers by using a combination of direct and indirect communication channels such as websites, online and offline catalogues, email, direct mail, mobile, messaging apps, social media, etc. Multi-channel marketing has been heavily used mostly in the retail industry by enabling customers to buy a product or service by using the communication channel of their preference. However this approach can also be very effective in the recruitment industry.
<11an>limit:2;categories:jobs|courses|conferences;disciplines:Microeconomics (JEL D)</11an> Principles of Microeconomics - N. Gregory Mankiw Now in its seventh edition, this textbook on microeconomics is one of the most widely-used and respected. Offering an in-depth overview of all of the fundamentals of the microeconomic discipline, it’s also a surprisingly accessible read for a dense university textbook. It’s arranged in short chapters, Mankiw himself is a highly respected economist, and it’s a great starting point even for laypeople. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explains the Hidden Side of Everything - Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner No list of microeconomics books would be complete without the extremely famous, and very enjoyable, Freakonomics. Levitt and Dubner’s book, a collection of articles, focuses on the application of economic methods to everyday things. There are chapters on cheating, drug dealing, the KKK, and even naming children, among other things. It was such a huge success it spawned a blog, a radio show, a sequel, and even a film. Prices and Quantities: Fundamentals of Microeconomics - Rakesh V. Vohra This book attempts to change up exactly how microeconomics is taught, by beginning with the most basic principles which only involve one variable and steadily getting more complicated. What this achieves is that the mathematics required to fully grasp microeconomics is simplified, in that the calculus steadily gets harder as the book progresses. Vohra also uses real-world examples to make concepts easier to grasp, making this a great addition to your microeconomics library. Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman In short a summary of Kahneman’s research over the course of several decades of highly successful economics work, Thinking, Fast and Slow is much more than that. Really, it’s a book about how human judgment can’t really be trusted - and how knowing this information can change how you see your own decision-making processes and change your life. The book has sold over one million copies and is also an important behavioural economics book. Microeconomics - Paul Krugman and Robin Wells Much the same as the duo’s book on macroeconomics, Krugman and Wells’ book explaining the fundamentals of microeconomics is accessible, nicely written, and covers most everything you’ll need to know about the discipline. It tries its best not to use jargon when explaining its concepts, and uses plenty of real-world examples to make them as easy to understand as possible. This is a great book if you want to get away from the dense language and confusing jargon of economics and easily learn about microeconomics which, after all, isn’t rocket science!
Anyone in the midst of their undergraduate degree will know of the two main tenets of economics: micro and macro. If you’re looking for the best macroeconomic books, you can head over to our article on that topic, because in this piece, we’ll be going through some of the most useful and interesting microeconomic books which will help you get up to speed on all of the fundamentals of the discipline. And remember, these books aren’t only for students - laypeople who are interested in the subject can also benefit from picking up one of these tomes. And what better time to do some reading than when stuck inside during the pandemic?