Discover 96 opportunities in Sean McClung

Almost everyone has heard of Pokémon: it’s the highest-grossing media franchise in the world1. The core concept is also familiar to most people – in the Pokémon world, quasi-magical creatures live alongside people in idyllic, family-friendly harmony. 

Attending university can be a ton of fun, but it’s also supposed to prepare you for the next stage in your career. Normally, this involves a lot of studying. But breaks and hobbies are important to have, too.

Is it possible to reinvigorate under-developed regions by turning the public’s penchant for gambling into a force for economic growth? That is one of the questions asked by labor policy economist Luigino Giliberto in his debut book, Athena’s Reasons (currently offered in Italian). The book details a model of regional economic growth that aims to reinvigorate Italy’s less developed areas, inspired by the ancient Greek goddess Athena.

Everyone’s heard of micro- and macroeconomics. The two terms are so deeply ingrained in the world of economics that even lay people generally know what they refer to. Almost everything economists analyze can be arguably given one of these labels.

Aspiring economists may be curious to know: how much do economists earn in different types of jobs? The INOMICS Salary Report contains a wealth of data about economist pay by job title and region (among many other factors). This article takes Salary Report data on salaries by job title and analyzes it from a new angle, including highest degree earned, which will help younger economists to plan their career path.

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

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.

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. 

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.