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Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Advice for Aspiring Economists
A student from abroad emails the following question:
Do you have some hints for me, how to become a good economist?
Here is some advice for, say, an undergraduate considering a career as an economist.
1. Take as many math and statistics courses as you can stomach.
2. Choose your economics courses from professors who are passionate about the field and care about teaching. Ignore the particular topics covered when choosing courses. All parts of economics can be made interesting, or deadly dull, depending on the instructor.
3. Use your summers to experience economics from different perspectives. Spend one working as a research assistant for a professor, one working in a policy job in government, and one working in the private sector.
4. Read economics for fun in your spare time. To get you started, here is a list of recommended readings.
Summer Reading List
A student emails me asking for a summer reading list. Here are ten very different books I like that are fun enough that you would not be embarrassed (well, not too embarrassed) reading them at the beach:
- Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom
- Robert Heilbroner, The Worldly Philosophers
- Paul Krugman, Peddling Prosperity
- Steven Landsburg, The Armchair Economist
- P.J. O'Rourke, Eat the Rich
- Burton Malkiel, A Random Walk Down Wall Street
- Avinash Dixit and Barry Nalebuff, Thinking Strategically
- Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, Freakonomics
- John McMillan, Reinventing the Bazaar
- William Breit and Barry T. Hirsch, Lives of the Laureates
5. Follow economics news. The best weekly is The Economist. The best daily is the Wall Street Journal.
6. If you are at a research university, attend the economic research seminars at your school about once a week. You may not understand the discussions at first, because they may seem too technical, but you will pick up more than you know, and eventually you’ll be giving the seminar yourself.
You may find some other useful tidbits in this paper of mine.
Update: Here is some advice from Susan Athey about applying to grad school in economics.
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22 Comments:
if you're a law student:
- don't look down on math
- read this blog
- subscribe to The Economist and read it every week
- be glad you're a law student
it works for me :-)
But what is the definition of being a “good” economist? What is it to be “good” in economics? I hear people from the poet side saying that the plumber side people are wasting their time and not doing good economics. Similarly from the plumber side. What if “good” economics is not absolute but extremely relative?
Nevertheless, I think the advice that Mr. Mankiw gave are to the point. I would add: find the people that you think are good economists because you like their way of doing it and read absolutely everything they write. They will show you the way. Examples for me: Summers, Blanchard, Mankiw, Stiglitz, Jovanovic, Akerlof, Rogoff, Obstfeld, Solow, Krugman.
The problem is that not any of the young academic crowd, say of the past 10-15 years, qualifies. The writing got worst, the focus is on publication for the sake of it, not because there is something new and useful to say, people read less and less and don’t want to sit on the shoulders of the giants. And it works! Says law at its best. In brief, the nature of academe is changing dramatically. Any corroborations?
What kind of math? Is calc important? Because I miss calc.
I agree that the teacher quality is an important factor; it has everything to do with everything. I've postponed taking the most basic econ classes just because some professors have been reviewed as being the worst people have ever had, and I don't want that sort of experience.
Also, participating in a research seminar as an undergraduate is harder than it seems... my professor secretly laughed at me when I suggested the idea a couple months ago, though not in a mean way. Apparently it was VERY technical for my intro to econ brain.
Phila_Sophia,
I'd like to suggest that the young academic crowd is doing some extremely exciting stuff. Off my head, you should have a look at Ricardo Reis, Ray Fisman, Enrico Moretti, Mark Melitz, Marianne Betrand, Sendhil Mullainathan, Esther Duflo, Erik Hurst, and probably two dozen others which I forget. And yes, most of the exciting work is happening in micro right now.
Let me suggest that an economics student can take too many math and statistics courses.
E.g. an economic student should learn second-order linear differential equations, but avoid classes with third-order nonlinear differential equations.
Similarly, an economics student shouldn't learn an excessive amount about statistics or its use in the hard sciences -- most particularly don't look to closely into "statistical significance" and its valid uses. In oother words, avoid avoid any classes in the underlying logic and or proper use of statics concepts or equations.
Thumbnail recommendation:
Master the math fashions of the day in economics -- but don't think too seriously about the coherent use or application of the mathematics you are manipulating.
First: Thanx to Prof. Mankiw!! I really have to say - I am thankful!
@Phila_Sophia
Indeed, it is difficult to say what I mean with good. At first, of course, good means something like "all knowing" about economics. Buut: In Germany, we have many good economists (i guess), but no one is as famous as a Krugman (while I can't undestand that he is that famous...). In fact, most economists really do research here, but don't "speak with the masses". one of my mine targets for life, is to try to get people educated about economics. I cant stand the bullshit, some people say or some magazines write about economics - not because I have another opinion - because what I they say makes neither sense nor is it right. In fact, during the last voting-campaigns - the politians lied about economics and no one unterstand it or said something. I hope I was able to get my point straig.
Perhabs a new Point for Prof. Mankiws list - 7. Improve your english. - Because I realized I have to...
@anonymus (1)
I realy appreciate, I am not a law student. I have to do a course.... amd I hate it...
Greg,
Don't you think aspiring economists should take some time off from the theoretical musings and perhaps work in the business world?
Isn't this your criticism of poor journalists - i.e. a serious lack of real world experience?
Prof. Mankiw,
I am going to start grad school in econ this fall. As I look through my cohort list, only 4/21 of us are women. I am a RA in a research dept where only 2/20-something economist are female.
What are your honest observation about outcomes for women economist?
Don't know how this is going to go over but here it is . . .
I know nothing about economics aside from my shoddy 100 level Macro class at Colorado State and what I have been able to learn on my own. But after bouncing around the desert with the Army, and preparing for a new army experience that combines analytical know-how with people skills, I would say this.
Get your boots muddy. Feel your toes tingle with the cold. Feel the floodwater around your feet when you ask yourself why the Bangladeshi economy may take centerstage in the next ten years.
I may very well be a dumb soldier, but I know that amazing things happen when intelligence, opportunity and practical experience reach critical mass. Read the economist: Hell yes. But nothing beats asking the guy at the market in Pakistan what the big deal with Kashmir is all about.
Mr. Mankiw, I doubt I have the credentials to even post a comment on a Harvard related site; but I enjoy your thoughts immensely.
I have to disagree with the math recommendation. Economics is just as much about math as it is about finance. Unfortunately, economists think economics needs math and non-economists think that an expert at finance is a good economist (*cough* Keynes *cough*).
Some further suggestions:
- when studying math, put emphasis on statistics and stochastic processes (very useful)
- economist who doesn't know finance very well is a bullshit economist. Learn modern portfolio theory, equity and fixed income analysis, and derivatives pricing to the point that you could make a living with that.
- learn to write your own computer programs (at least macros in Excel's Visual Basic, but C++ is much better)
- develop and refine your writing skills. The better written paper or research report, the bigger the chance it would really catch attention.
- don't underestimate "soft" disciplines. Study languages, history, political science, and sociology. Select authors very well (no Chomsky, no Giddens!!!!!!)
- quite demanding, huh? Have a break from time to time, and enjoy your life.
As a young economist about to plunge into a PhD program this Fall, I have tried to do all of these suggestions. It is important to note that these shouldn't be forced. If you don't ENJOY reading "The Economist" or the WSJ on a weekly basis, or ENJOY classic works like "Capitalism and Freedom" or "Freakonomics" (agree with them or not) in your spare time, then you may not be cut out for economics afterall.
I am just a young guy, so my advice might not amount to much. But, I have noticed that brilliant young minds get burnt out on economics because they don't enjoy it. I would add that enjoying the subject matter may be an implicit condition here, which is absolutely necessary but not sufficient to be a good economist.
I teach economics at a mediocre university in the midwest. It's a great job. I have a degree in math and it was very helpful in graduate study in economics, much less so in teaching and publishing now.
Cpt Forman made a great comment: it is important to have the skills (theory & econometrics) to be able to answer interesting questions, but without some life experience you may not know what questions to ask. Travel, military service, raising a family, running a business (however small) will help you see the connections between the field of economics and the real life it purports to explain.
I actually did all three things that Mankiw suggested- worked as a RA, worked at the Federal Reserve, and worked as an analyst in the private sector.
The best experiences are from working as a RA and in the private sector.
If you like reading, I suggest sitting in the library and going through the top journals and read anything that sounds fun to you.
If you want to do empirical work, definitely learn how to program because you can't always rely on what's available at ICPSR. Often the best data needs to be parsed from unwieldly sources.
Perl and Python are good choices, C++ is a bit overkill but definitely good to know. Matlab is very good. Stata is good for the quick and dirty solutions. S+ and SAS have their pros and cons.
Learn as much as you can from your colleagues. Sometimes it can be quite difficult to be cerebral by yourself.
You have to really love it to succeed. And yes, the payoffs do exhibit option like behavior so it's optimal to try to swing for the fence.
If researching is leisure to you, then you've made the right choice.
interesting comments thus far...
first, i'd say that reading the economist & the Wall Street Journal are essential if you'd like a business career and want to fit in perfectly w/ that crowd. If you want to read stuff a bit more intelligent, then read the New York Times, The New Yorker, and some local papers from different regions. Economics is a social science, so read lots of history, and take lots of history & polysci courses. (Not sure Mankiw did this.) As for which math courses to take, I'd due at least three or four semesters of college calculus, analysis (two semesters would be ideal), linear algebra, differential equations, two semesters of calc-based statistics, and also take or sit in on at least one graduate course in economics or mathmatics. If you don't go to a prestigious undergraduate institution, then you're better off loading your senior year w/ 4-5 math/econometrics/grad econ courses each semester, and another couple during the summer. You'll need the math, trust me, and it is actually helpful.
As for girls in Econ? don't be discouraged. in my program there's only one american girl, but asian girls actually overcome their genetic inferiority and outnumber asian guys (and white guys) by quite a large margin. Most do quite well.
Real world experience is good -- i backpacked through asia and latin america, learned local languages and cultures, and really enjoyed the experience & learned a lot. Watch out though, b/c time spent outside of school will see your academic (especially math & writing) skills depreciate.
most particularly don't look to closely into "statistical significance" and its valid uses. In oother words, avoid avoid any classes in the underlying logic and or proper use of statics concepts or equations. Gah!!!! Why would you do that?! Barely a paper is written that doesn't make some reference (often a poor one) to a p-value or to the inferences the author is making based on statistical analysis. Would you encourage a mechanic to avoid learning the proper uses of an impact wrench? If they don't understand the tools, they just use them to spit out results of questionable validity and utility.
I am from New Delhi, and I have to say that I loved studying from your books. You write remarkably lucidly and well Mr. Mankiw.
And economics rocks!
Dear Mr.Mankiw, the books that you have guided people to read are difficult to find it In India. Can u help me.
your books on Macroeconomics are a the default textbooks for graduate students here.
Prof.mankiw
I have some questions. According to the economic theory ,the pursuit of rent in coporation(such as bribe)will bring low effiency to the market . however,in many developing countries ,this is essential for the parrent" effiency" to some international ones. only they do this.their companies seem to catch some profit,or this is no effiency for theirs.Is there some postive relatons between rent and profit under the circunmstance of developing country ?
Thanks
Professor Mankiw,
You're list is direct and great!
I think the perspective of an economist is marvelous and fair.
and being an international business student with a love for investing, economics interests me greatly. I have unintentionally followed your list and it's brought me to a greater understanding of economics.
The only point I would add is to debate it.
Debate every issue you can find from both point of views.
Hi. I am one of those students who is not particularly talented in mathematics, but if I work on a concept, I can get it. I receive good grades, but don't have the natural ability to "do" math. That said, I am very interested in Economics and am considering a PhD. Does it hurt me that my math skills are not amazing and I have to take a little longer to learn concepts?