With the summer behind us (at least for those in the northern hemisphere), now is the best time to start planning your academic calendar for the coming year. However, the number of conferences and workshops taking place in the next twelve months is enormous and may be overwhelming when it comes to choosing the best one(s) for you. In order to help you with this endeavour, we have put together a selection of conferences and workshops organized by national and international organizations, covering a wide range of topics in social sciences.

Whether you’re looking for a summer internship, your first postgraduate job or a change in career, gaining experience in a think tank or research institute is always a good way to go. While some think tanks engage in highly specialized research on specific topics, many span a broad range of issues, particularly in the fields of politics, economics and international relations. We’ve decided to dedicate three distinct blog posts to top think tanks around the world, beginning with this list of European institutions. Keep an eye out for upcoming posts on U.S. and Latin American institutions.

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. It is for this purpose, the elucidation of the conditions of the global economics job market, that we at INOMICS compiled our 2018 Salary Report – downloadable for registered users here. With over 2000 participants from across the world, the Report serves as an invaluable resource, detailing the remuneration one can expect in academia or the private sector depending on one’s level of qualification. It also outlines the direction current salary trends seem to be headed, permitting prospective students to judge how ‘cost-effective’ future degrees are likely to be, thus making the best-informed career decisions possible.

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.

While pursuing a graduate degree is undeniably interesting and challenging, tuition fees and other costs associated with studying have been getting higher and higher over the last decade. This has lead to plenty of students questioning whether the expense in terms of time and money that they will have to put into obtaining a graduate degree is worth it. In a difficult job market, students are less willing to take on large debts to finance their study unless they can be reasonably sure that they will get a well-paying job at the end of it.

Following up on last week’s list of Top Think Tanks and Social Science Research Institutes in Europe, this post is dedicated to top institutions in the United States. Although the U.S. is home to hundreds of research institutes, focusing on a vast array of disciplines and issues, there is a certain degree of consensus regarding which are the most respected. In the list below, we chose to highlight top think tanks working in the broad areas of politics, economics and international relations.