Google’s California headquarters is one of the more unusual places where you might find economists hard at work. While economists did not have a place at Google when it launched in 1998, by 2002 Google had begun to hire economists in advisory roles as the demand for Google’s ad space grew in size and complexity.

“You can’t be an economist without noticing all the interesting things about how the economy works, it is natural to be interested in it and I have had the privilege to be able to study it” said Alvin A. Roth answering questions during the unexpected 4am call from Sweden. Together with Lloyd S. Shapley, Roth was awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel – more commonly known as the Nobel Prize in Economics – “for the theory of stable allocations and practice of market design”. During the award speech the field was described as being  “…about economic engineering, [and] how to design certain markets where the traditional market mechanism is expected to not work well.”

Data published on OECD.Stats Extracts gives an overview of the absolute numbers of graduates from tertiary type-A and advanced research programs for all standard fields of education.  According to the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), economics and economic history fall under the category of Social and Behavioral Science (business and related disciplines are not included). The graph presented above includes aggregated data for countries with the largest number of graduates in social and behavioral science* for the year 2010. The number of graduates from the US significantly out numbers graduates from other OECD countries, leading in every other discipline as well. Unfortunately, there is no information available on the exact percentage of economists among the graduates.

After our tour of economics conferences this summer, the INOMICS team was impressed by the number of young economists at these events. Anecdotally, many delegates have the impression that there is a trend towards younger academics at even long-established, annual events, as well as more female delegates than were present in the past. Perhaps the time of economics conferences as the preserve of distinguished, yet silver-haired, bearded men is coming to a close.

On November 16, 2006 the world lost one of the most influential economists of the twentieth century. Today, July 31, 2012, Milton Friedman would have celebrated his 100th birthday, which makes it perhaps a fitting time to stop for a moment and recall some of his contributions to the field.

Three Economists go out hunting

The Tilburg University Economics Ranking Sandbox For anyone that doesn’t know it, the Tilburg University Economics Ranking, which ranks economics departments based on contributions to articles published in any one of 62 (mostly English-language) economics-related journals, is well worth a look.

The cost of education varies enormously depending on what one studies and where. In the last few years, there has been plenty of hype about the ‘Higher Education Bubble,’ brought to the attention of the media by the Economist last year. This phenomena seems to be particularly prominent in the business-oriented fields worldwide and as an overarching situation in the US.

Every year, Max Bazerman, a Harvard Business School professor runs the exact same experiment with his students. In short form, he auctions off a $20 bill but places strict rules on how the betting can take place regulating who pays, and who wins.

Based on survey responses from economists and recruiters from over 70 countries, the INOMICS Job Market Report 2012 reveals the latest trends in the academic job market for economists worldwide.