Discover 50 opportunities in economists

The holiday season is coming and Christmas is just around the corner. If you want to avoid buying presents for the holidays in a panic, you had better get to planning the gifts you'll be giving.

The following article first appeared in the INOMICS Handbook 2021. Download the INOMICS Handbook On a visit to the London School of Economics in November 2008, the Queen asked her hosts why no one had seen the financial crisis coming. It took the professors nine months to come up with an excuse, put forth in a letter in July 2009:

​Supply-side economics. Since its conception in the 1970s, debating its merits – or lack thereof – has been at the heart of political discourse, demarcating Republican from Democrat, Tory loyalist from Labour devotee, and informing not just an economic outlook, but a world view. 

Economics isn't something that can only be learned from degree programs, books or journals. As an important part of modern life, there are also a number of great movies about economic themes. From the 2008 financial crisis to the formation of game theory, movies have documented a variety of subjects that will be of interest to economists. Next time you're sitting down for movie night, try one of these 10 films that economists will love.

There are many excellent economics blogs out there. Whether you want to read commentaries on economic policy, find out what people are currently researching, or simply keep up-to-date with the latest economic happenings across the world, there are blogs for all tastes.

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.

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.

Innovation Economics is a relatively new branch of economics that focuses on (rather predictably) innovation, alongside the study of technology, knowledge, and entrepreneurship. It aims to understand where new ideas come from, and how we can put forward policies which will encourage the development of new ways of thinking. As many nations move away from an industrial model of production and towards a knowledge-based economy, the economics of innovation becomes more and more relevant.

When discussing jobs in the government, the type of work that comes to mind is most likely influenced by your particular background. In countries in which large segments of the economy are nationalized, it’s possible to become a civil servant in nearly any field. In other places, your options might be more limited.

The reputation gained by economists has been a remarkable feat of PR; a branding job like no other. Quite how it developed remains a mystery, some inexplicable sleight-of-hand. Its consequence, however, is far easier to discern: in the minds of many, economics came to be thought of as a science. Removed from its rough prediction roots, it became a discipline of watertight theory, with a methodology capable of unearthing indisputable truths.

Situated in the oldest city of the Netherlands, Nijmegen, Radboud University has firmly established itself as one of the country’s most reputable institutions of higher education. Offering programmes across the academic spectrum, its MSc in Economics, in particular, is attracting students from all over the world.

You know that there are a ton of career prospects open to someone who has studied economics, spanning from academia and the finance industry, all the way to management consulting. A big advantage of studying economics is that it gives you a skill set which is applicable and transferrable to many different fields. One particular area of work open to economists is the non-profit sector. Many are drawn to this sector for social reasons; the desire to make a positive impact on the world. It is a highly admirable area to work in, and something that we at INOMICS massively endorse! So, what kind of non-profit jobs are actually available to economists? Here are our suggestions that may be applicable to you.

Automation will transform our world; there is no doubt about it. Quite how, though, is highly contested – whether optimist or pessimist, there are predictions to match every predilection. Newspapers alternately run articles speculating a work-free, post-capitalist future filled with armchair philosophising, with forecasts of a world ravaged by inequality in which robots tend to the mega-rich, and everyone else is cast onto the scrap heap to contemplate what-on-earth went wrong. Little, it appears, exists in the in-between.

A subject that many new economics students – and some older economics students too – struggle with is statistics. Statistics are an essential tool for economics, allowing data analysis and modelling to be accurate and mathematically correct. More broadly, statistics are of great importance in all of our daily lives as this fantastic infographic on applied statistics from Michigan Tech University illustrates. 

The announcement of the Nobel Prize in Economics 2018 could not have been timed better. It took place just 24 hours after the release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) stark warning that only 12 years now remain for global warming to be kept to a minimum of 1.5C, beyond which catastrophe looms. Rather appropriately, considering the admonishment, the gong was jointly awarded to Americans William Nordhaus and Paul Romer for their research into, as put by Swedish Academy, two of the most ‘basic and pressing’ economic issues of our time: ‘long-term sustainable growth and the welfare of the world’s population’.

There are some surprising ways in which the opinions of economists diverge from most other people – and some things about which economists agree that they can't stand. Here are 9 things that economists hate:

The following is an analysis of data taken from the INOMICS Salary Report 2018 - downloadable for registered users here. Specifically, it looks at the average salaries of economists working in academia and the private sector according to their level of seniority. It is the third instalment in a series of insights handling the Report’s findings. The first two can be found in our insights section.

The following is an analysis of data taken from the INOMICS Salary Report 2018 - downloadable for registered users here. Specifically, it looks at the average salaries of economists working in academia and the private sector across the world. It is the second instalment in a series of insights handling the Report’s findings. Check out our economics job listings

Are you currently working on a degree in urban, rural, or regional economics? Are you thinking about what possible career path you could follow once you graduate? If so, then today's article is for you. Previously we're shared articles on top career paths for other areas of economics like macroeconomics or economic law, but today we're focusing on urban, rural, and regional economics.

Photo Credit: larspsyll In this interview, Dr. Mark Thoma discusses his dislike for the 8 – 5 lifestyle, his lifelong love of math, the importance of economic history and why he’d like to have dinner with Milton Friedman, John Maynard Keynes and Adam Smith, among other topics.

So you know that getting to know other people in your field is important, and that you need to network when you attend a conference. But what about the rest of the time? What websites can you use to get in touch with other experts in your field? Here are some ideas: