While plenty of people both within and outside of academia hold strong opinions regarding which institutions have the best political science departments, there are some schools that stand at the top of everyone’s list. Whether you agree or disagree with rankings, the reality is that they matter for students and professionals alike. As of 2013, 20% of political science professors in the United States earned their PhDs at one of four institutions (note that there are nearly 3,000 universities in the U.S.), which happen to hold the top four spots in U.S. News and World Report Rankings.

While today might just be another Monday for most of us around the world, for the nearly 37 million claiming Irish ancestry (more than 8 times the current population of Ireland), for many living on the Emerald Isle and for those who might just be interested in donning some green and downing a Guinness, St. Patrick’s Day is a beloved holiday. Following in the vein of such posts as Christmas Economics and Halloween Economics, we wanted to get in on the St. Paddy’s fun, but of course with an economics twist.

As admissions season for Master’s programs in Europe gets underway, we thought we would help you narrow your search by posting a list of 15 Top Master’s Programs in Economics, grouped by country. Back in January we posted the Top Research Institutions in Europe, based on RePEc rankings. The list below moves beyond rankings to include personally selected institutions from across Europe that offer highly acclaimed Master’s programs in a range of disciplines and specializations.

As of 2011, significantly more women than men completed secondary education in an astounding 32 of the 34 OECD member countries, according to a study by OECD researchers. On average, women accounted for 58% of graduates overall, though the range between countries is quite great. Moreover, the numbers vary tremendously across disciplines, with the areas of health & welfare and arts & humanities still heavily female, while math & science remain overwhelmingly male.

Over the past few weeks we’ve posted lists of Top Summer Schools in Economics and Top Summer Schools in Business and Management. While we are happy to promote the many great programs out there, we also understand that wading through the sea of options might leave you feeling a little overwhelmed.

With the release of the Spanish report this week in the worldwide series of INOMICS Job Market Reports, more information has been added to the wealth of data regarding the interests and experiences of economists across the globe.

Despite the uncertain outlook for the labour market in the Iberian region, the percentage of foreigners working or studying in Spanish institutions is higher than in other countries like Germany or United Kingdom (for more information access reports from other regions here). Many of these economists study or work at one of the numerous highly ranked institutions found in Spain, such as the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics or the University of Barcelona.

As another season of graduate school applications comes to a close, we wanted to offer a few diverse perspectives on the matter for any of you still on the fence, or for those of you planning ahead for next year. Although deadlines for this coming fall have already passed for most schools in North America, potential PhD candidates looking at European, Asian, African or Latin American schools may still have some time to send in an application.

There are many factors affecting one’s decision when choosing a job, and as the INOMICS Economics Job Market Report showed last year, a friendly working environment, flexible working hours and time to conduct one’s own research seem to be the top three priorities worldwide. Salaries are rated fifth, but as we all know, expected remuneration can easily affect one’s career choice.

Following up on last year’s Valentine’s Day post Would you Date an Economist?, this year we’ll tackle the next step: how to predict the potential success of your relationship – using game theory. Once again, we’ve compiled a list of authors, researchers and scholars who have attempted to crack the code of love using numbers and logic.

In this report, which was just released on the INOMICS website, we offer a detailed look at the interests and experiences of economists in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. With the participation of over 300 economists from these three countries, we gathered a broad range of data in response to questions regarding fields of specialization, international mobility, job market preferences, top employers and many other issues. While nearly a third of survey respondents were PhD candidates, researchers made up another significant portion of participants (20%) and other respondents included professors, consultants, analysts, lecturers and others.

As the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi enter their second week, the talk of who is bringing home the gold centers not just on the athletes, but also on the cities, countries and corporations who have invested in these games. In this post we’d like to focus on the economics of the Olympics, this year and in general.

On Wednesday, January 29, INOMICS released the Economics Job Market Report 2013 (UK and Ireland). This report, based on the findings of the Economics Job Market Survey conducted in 2013, introduces the reader to various aspects of the job market in economics, business and finance, concentrating primarily on the academic field.

INOMICS is probably the best-known and most reputable tool for finding academic conferences, especially for events focusing on economics and finance-related disciplines. While the majority of new users still find out about INOMICS through word of mouth, a much faster growing part of users lands on INOMICS when searching for specific conferences on Google.

It is no secret that Summer Schools are among the most visited types of Announcement on INOMICS. As many PhD and Masters students aim to be awarded external funding or need to go through complex bureaucratic procedures inside their own institutions before they can attend, their decision about which Summer School(s) to attend often needs to be made several months ahead.

Econ Job Market in the UK & Ireland: the new INOMICS Report is available for free download.

One year ago, we published information about the Top 10 economics departments in Europe  to support the educational choices of new professionals. Now we want to direct the attention of our readers to an overview of European institutions from a research approach. The purpose of the following list is to guide people who are interested in developing their careers as economics researchers in Europe in collaboration with top economics authors.

There are a number of disciplines one cannot avoid when purusing a degree in economics. In earlier articles we have looked at resources for econometrics, statistics and other quantitative subjects, so now it is high time to cover fields related to microeconomics. Below we have gathered a list of useful links and resources for those interested in game theory – the starting point for students focusing on auctions, organization theory, strategic management and so on.

The annual American Economic Association Meeting is a well-known event bringing together some of the brightest minds in economics and probably counting as one of the largest gatherings of young academics in one place. Here at INOMICS we are delighted to have been a part of this annual gathering for the second year in a row, as besides attendance of exceptional academic sessions, it is also a rare opportunity to meet and greet our users and readers personally.

At times it is hard to believe how fast time flies – yet another year is over! 2013 was an exciting year for the INOMICS blog: in 12 months, the number of readers quadrupled, the blog was launched in 3 additional languages (Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese), and we got ever more inspiration to share interesting and useful resources, research and stories with the academic community.

Even though many (especially young and less experienced) job candidates attend interviews with an anticipation of being assessed, in reality the assessment always happens in both directions. And the more that a talented applicant has to offer, the pickier he or she can be when making a final decision.

The Christmas break is approaching and all university departments are getting busy finalizing their end-of-year work. For busy marketers and conference organizers a Christmas break might seem not to be the best time of the year to promote their courses and conferences to a wider audience. However, our experience at INOMICS confirms that it is not exactly true. Of course, much depends on your target audience: but while for many December 25th will be almost certainly dedicated to family commitments, for many the days before and after Christmas represent one of the few times of the year that they can actually spend searching more deeply for information in their field of interest, especially with regard to extra training and conferences.

Econometrics is a thorough discipline that demands time and effort to be mastered. For many people who want to pursue a degree in economics it serves as an obstacle, but as we’ve shown before, there are many resources you can use to your advantage to become proficient in it: blogs and podcasts can introduce you to the topic and give practical advice, free online courses will incentivize you to learn systematically and increase your ability to perform a research using different econometrics and statistical software like “R” or “Stata”, and YouTube channels can greatly support your studies by giving access to lectures and tutorials of great professors at any time convenient for you.

Figure 1. Average number of applications per position

 View the following: