Discover 390 opportunities in economics

Since its foundation by Portuguese colonists, Brazil, the largest country in Latin America, has experienced an important immigrant flow. Over time, the Brazilian government has influenced this flow by implementing policies that support the needs of the economy. If during the first half of the 20th century governmental policies targeted low-skilled immigrants for work in the agricultural sector, in the last quarter of the century the government aimed to attract highly skilled immigrants to the country. The new trend was marked by the adoption of a new immigration law in 1981, which introduced new processes for visas and work permits and created a number of obstacles for low skilled migration.

Teaching, whether at school or university level, is generally and  rightly considered a worthy occupation. As supported by some Professor Ratings, however, unfortunately not every high school, college or university can boast perfect ratings for their academic staff, and many individual lecturers and professors have room for improvement, at least in the views of the students.

Business Economics is a rather broad area of economics covering everything from business organization, management and marketing to the role of entrepreneurs and impact of the government on corporations. It is also assumed to be one of the most applicable research branches within economics: where today’s academic research might result in tomorrow’s industry implementations.

At this time of year, with the summer heat visibly rising from the Berlin pavement, for many there is nothing more appealing than a cold beer in one of the city’s numerous beer gardens. And perhaps among these Berlin beer lovers, more than a couple of economists might be found as well.

University rankings are considered to be an important tool, if not the most relevant one, in determining the quality of education at higher education institutions, schools, departments and programs according to a specific set of factors. Rankings are often consulted by both applicants in the university admission process deciding on their next place of study or work, as well as directors of the institutions measured in the rankings as a benchmark against other relevant institutions.

Following my last post listing our favourite economics blogs, I have looked a little closer at the blogging community and who the potential contenders are for THE coveted position of top economics blog.

The literature research students need to rely on throughout all of their thesis writing is diverse. Broadly categorized there are three types of literature useful for PhD students: research/topic literature, methods literature, and ‘how to do your PhD’ literature. A somewhat similar classification of PhD materials can, for example, be found in Chris Hart’s Doing a Literature Search: A Comprehensive Guide for the Social Sciences (2010, Sage, p.2), which I recommend immensely.

The application deadline for the winter semester in many Latin American universities is approaching. To help those considering further education or work in this region we are sharing a list of top Economics Departments in Latin America. If you are interested in universities in other regions, check out our previous posts on the Top 10 Economics Departments in Europe and Top 10 Economics Institutions in Asia. The following list is based on the QS Latin American University Rankings for Economics and Econometrics.

At INOMICS we strive to offer the best resources for economists to support them in their careers. Besides providing information on jobs, courses and conferences in the economics field, in partnership with RePEc we’ve been working on making economics research more accessible to our users. As a means of support in promoting economics research, in April 2013

According to our study last year, 35% of economists are working outside their home countries.  The majority of economists go to work to the US, Germany and France (11% of the respondents respectively), followed by Switzerland (8%), Italy, Netherlands and the UK (6% respectively).

* The original article was published in the INOMICS Customer Newsletter. Click here to subscribe.

Source: Estadística de Variaciones Residenciales y Estimaciones de la Población Actual, INE.

With the application deadlines for PhD and Master’s courses in Europe approaching, we decided to post a list of Top 10 European Economics Departments to support your decision when choosing the right institution. As all university rankings have their flaws and there is an obvious shortage of rankings for specific disciplines, we combined two ranking systems in one table: RePEc, Top 25% Economics Departments (February 2013) and QS World University Rankings by Subject (2012).

Last year I wrote a post on whether free education would replace the skyrocketing tuition fees being faced around the world. A year later and this topic has expanded so much that it has a name: MOOCs – Massive Open Online Courses – and there are, literally, millions of them and the trend is growing fast, as illustrated by this ‘MOOC Timeline’.

Data Source: RePEc, Top 12.5% Asia, as of January 2013

After our post last summer about the trend for conferences and prizes aimed at young economists, several further events are coming up this year, which could be of interest to PhD students and young researchers. Some of these are specifically for students or junior academics whilst others offer financial support or prizes to those attending or presenting papers at the meeting.

Yesterday, the 19th of Feb, the economics community lost another famed scholar – Armen Alchian, 98, professor emeritus at the University of California Los Angeles.

Image Credit: Liz FosslienHave you ever considered dating an economist, and if yes, what did you decide? If you are puzzled by this question, there are plenty of resources, which can help you to find an answer. The amount of material on this topic found by searching Google and the number of jokes made clearly indicate that it is indeed a hot topic, even more so on a Valentine’s Day.

Last year we published a list of “The Best Economics Android Apps”, with the intention to follow it up with a post about economics apps for iOS devices later. As promised, here is the list of the apps for economists, who prefer to use Apple products, and which could be useful for both students and professionals in economics.

 The US-based International Association for Energy Economics is the world’s largest organization of Energy Economists with members from over 100 countries. Part of their mandate includes facilitating the mutual association of people interested in energy economics, in order to create a forum for professional discussion and to provide a means of international communication and exchange. Collaboration between INOMICS and IAEE has already benefitted both organizations in terms of consolidating global reach and sharing resources.

Source: National Science Foundation, NSF/NIH/USED/USDA/NEH/NASA, Survey of Earned Doctorates

With ice on the ground and a chill in the air (at least for those living in northern climes), it is nice to think about the summer and all of the welcome things it brings: warmth, flowers, and, of course, new career and training opportunities.

Source: Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China (China), The Survey of Earned Doctorates, National Science Foundation (US)

As we reached the end of the year 2012, we decided to compile a list of the top INOMICS blog posts, those that received a record number of visitors throughout the year.  Enjoy your reading and Happy New Year to everyone!

Following our earlier post from November about Economics Conferences in 2013, we have now published a (chronological) list of Conferences in Economics and Statistics taking place in the Asia-Pacific Region. If you know of other interesting, economics-related events in the region, please share these with us in the comments at the end of this post.