Here's a big question that's on the mind of many master's and undergraduate students: should I do a PhD? The idea of dedicating three years or more of your life to original research is both exciting and terrifying, and the experience can be either exhilarating or harrowing, or usually a mix of both.

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:

Building a brand used to be just for companies and universities – but now a personal brand is something that every student and academic needs to work on. While many academics are hesitant to brand themselves too actively, you should remember that not working on your brand is in itself a kind of branding, and not a positive one. So you’re going to have to spend some time building your personal profile as a researcher – but there are some tips that can help to make this process smoother and more efficient. Here are effective ways economists can build a personal brand.

Change the Order of the Day The reporting of British politics for journalists has rarely been so onerous. Dramatic landscape shifts in the form of u-turns, resignations, and unexpected elections, are now so frequent the lifespan of articles, previously measured in days, are better predicted in hours - sometimes just a handful.

Esteemed economist, blogger and friend of INOMICS, John H. Cochrane, kindly took time out of his busy schedule to take part in our Handbook questionnaire. However, this was no regular questionnaire, far from it. At its helm, assuming the role of quizmaster was none other than Mr Marcel Fratzscher: president of the DIW Berlin, and one of Germany’s leading voices in macroeconomics. Such is the reputation of these heavyweights we dubbed the encounter ‘Fratzscher v Cochrane’ – our personal nod to the pair’s professional standing.

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 PhDs, Post-Docs, and Full Professors, working in economics over the last 5 years, in the U.S, the U.K, Germany, and Italy. It is the 4th instalment in a series of insights handling the Report’s findings.

With the world cup now over a week old, we have reached the moment when even those initially reluctant, those who decried it at its outset, give in to football frenzy and find themselves, at least twice a week, standing amid a crowd of similarly dressed strangers, screaming at 11 little men on a screen they can barely see. It is wholly inevitable, and few would disagree, thoroughly enjoyable. Browse our PhD listings for more opportunities

The question of how far to proceed within academia, and subsequently, where to ply one’s trade when done, is, and will always be a tricky one. In times of widespread austerity, this quandary is further complicated by a general job climate of increased precariousness, falling wages, and diminished social security - rarely before has financial planning for the future held such significance.

Are you curious about the academic careers of your peers in Economics? We had a chance to ask a couple of questions to Mehmet Gökhan Özdemir, a PhD Student in the first year of his program in Economics at the Faculty of Political Sciences at Ankara University.

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.

It happens every year. As you’re walking through a shopping centre, a store, or perhaps a supermarket, you hear a Christmas song, and you know it’s the beginning of the buying frenzy that leads up to Christmas.

INOMICS supports students and researchers in attending conferences with a €500 grant Hear their perspectives on attending conferences and what advice they have to give other academics

INOMICS supports students and researchers in attending conferences with a €500 grant Hear their perspectives on attending conferences and what advice they have to give other academics

INOMICS supports students and researchers in attending conferences with a €500 grant Hear their perspectives on attending conferences and what advice they have to give other academics

INOMICS supports young students and researchers in attending conferences with a €500 grant Hear their perspectives on attending conferences and what advice they have to give other academics

INOMICS supports students and researchers in attending conferences with a €500 grant Hear their perspectives on attending conferences and what advice they have to give other academics

INOMICS supports students and researchers in attending conferences with a €500 grant Hear their perspectives on attending conferences and what advice they have to give other academics

The Nobel Prize for Economics, the most prestigious prize in the field, has been awarded this year to American economist Richard Thaler. The prize, fully titled The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, was announced by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and will be awarded in a ceremony in Stockholm in December.

INOMICS supports students and researchers in attending conferences with a €500 grant Hear their perspectives on attending conferences and what advice they have to give other academics

When you're doing data analysis, you might find yourself with a number of different variables to work with. For example, perhaps you have invited participants to your lab and run them through your experiment. You have collected data on variables such as the participant's age (in years), their reaction time to a particular stimulus (in milliseconds), their reaction time to another stimulus (in milliseconds), and their rating of a preference (on a 1 – 10 scale).

Maybe you've been to a few smaller national conferences, and now you're getting ready to head to your first international conference. Or perhaps your first conference will be a large international one. In either case, there are some tips that you should keep in mind when attending an international conference specifically. Here is our advice on preparing for and attending an international conference.