The following article first appeared in the INOMICS Handbook 2024.Download the INOMICS Handbook“The master-economist must possess a rare combination of gifts. He must reach a high standard in several different directions and must combine talents not often found together. He must be mathematician, historian, statesman, philosopher…He must study the present in the light of the past for the purposes of the future. No part of man's nature or his institutions must lie entirely outside his regard. He must be purposeful and disinterested in a simultaneous mood; as aloof and incorruptible as an artist, yet sometimes as near the earth as a politician.”– John Maynard Keynes

The following article first appeared in the INOMICS Handbook 2024.Download the INOMICS HandbookProfessor Marcel Fratzscher, esteemed macroeconomist and president of the DIW Berlin, once again asks questions about economics and life in general to a peer in the 2024 edition of the INOMICS Handbook Questionnaire. This time, he poses the questions to Dr. Olivier Blanchard, a prominent macroeconomist, who graciously took to the spotlight in this latest round. Thus, the back-and-forth has been dubbed Fratzscher vs. Blanchard, as is tradition. Dr. Blanchard offers us some interesting food for thought: the interview touches on the joy of conducting research with former students, the sometimes counterintuitive things we learn from economics, an analysis of Real Business Cycle Theory, and more.

Completing an economics degree course is hard enough. But after you’ve earned your degree, you may very well begin to look for a job in economics, which is a whole new type of challenge!

Alfred Marshall is a famous economist who made great contributions to the field when it was still relatively new towards the end of the 19th century. Yet, students often learn about important figures in economics only briefly and in passing, although the content taught in economics courses often comes from brilliant economists such as Marshall.

This article overviews different types of economics skills training courses and discusses how course organizers and recruiters can make sure their programs get seen and attract the right talent. If you’re looking to better serve the economics alumni from your degree programs, build a pipeline of potential PhD candidates, or just attract more attention to the professional training courses you offer, keep reading for more.

There are many schools of thought in economics. Each rallies around one or more different theories about how the world works, and builds models to support those theories and explain the economy. These schools include the (neo)classical, (neo)Keynesian, monetarist, and Chicago schools. Readers may have heard about the Austrian school of thought as well. 

It’s your first day at work and you’re nervous, naturally. You decide to quickly remember the journey that brought you to the computer screen you are now looking at. Many INOMICS readers will relate to this journey.

Economics can be used to study almost anything, including popular music. For example, the late Alan Krueger analyzed the music industry, examining live concert revenue, copyright protection, and streaming services in the book Rockonomics. Similarly, economics can offer insights about heavy metal specifically, a type of rock music characterized by loud distorted guitars, intense rhythms, and powerful vocal styles.

Economics students may often wonder if doing a PhD is the right move for them. After all, you can still get a good job in economics with just a Master’s degree. We’ve covered different angles of this topic before with helpful advice about what degree you’ll need as an economist, asking whether you should do a PhD, and even asking what kinds of economists are paid the most. Thanks to INOMICS Salary Report 2023 data, we can look more closely at the pay benefit for an economics PhD in today’s job market. This will help you decide if doing an economics PhD will be worth it for your own career.

Economics is a massive field with many sub-disciplines, and it’s impossible to master the whole lot of it from just one Master’s degree or even a PhD.