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Here's the equation you need to know. PhD in economics=JOB. Getty Images/isifa
People often ask me: Noah, what career path can I take where Im virtually guaranteed to get a well-paying job in my field of interest, which doesnt force me to work 80 hours a week, and which gives me both autonomy and intellectual excitement? Well, actually, I lied, no one asks me that. But they should ask me that, because I do know of such a career path, and its called the economics PhD. What?!! you sputter. What about all those articles telling me never, ever, ever, ever to get a PhD?! Didnt you read those?! Dont you know that PhDs are proliferating like mushrooms even as tenure-track jobs disappear? Do you want us to be stuck in eternal postdoc hell, or turn into adjunct-faculty wage-slaves?! To which I respond: There are PhDs, and there are PhDs, and then there are econ PhDs.
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Basically, I think of PhDs as mostly falling into one of three categories: 1. L ifestyle P h D s. These include math, literature and the humanities, theoretical physics, history, many social sciences, and the arts. These are PhDs you do because you really, really, really love just sitting and thinking about stuff. You work on your own interests, at your own pace. If you want to be a poor bohemian scholar who lives a pure life of the mind, these PhDs are for you. I totally respect people who intentionally choose this lifestyle; Id be pretty happy doing it myself, I think. Dont expect to get a job in your field when you graduate, though. 2. L ab science P h D s. These include biology, chemistry, neuroscience, electrical engineering, etc. These are PhDs you do because youre either a suicidal fool or an incomprehensible sociopath. They mainly involve utterly brutal hours slaving away in a laboratory on someone elses project for your entire late 20s, followed by years of postdoc hell for your early 30s, with a low percentage chance of a tenure-track faculty position. To find out what these PhD programs are like, read this blog post. If you are considering getting a lab science PhD, please immediately hit yourself in the face with a brick. Now you know what its like. (Note: People have been pointing out that electrical engineering isnt as bad as the other lab sciences, with somewhat more autonomy and better job prospects. Thats consistent with my observations. But econ still beats it by a mile) 3. P h D s that work. Im not exactly sure which PhDs fall into this category, but my guess is that it includes marketing, applied math and statistics, finance, computer science, accounting, and management. It definitely, however, includes economics. Economics is the best PhD you can possibly get. Why get a PhD in economics? Heres why:
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Now, this may be less true at lower-ranked schools; I dont have the data. I imagine its not as certain, but still far, far better than for lab science PhDs at similarly ranked schools. Why do so very few newly minted econ PhDs face the prospect of unemployment? Part of it is due to the econ fields extremely well-managed (and centrally planned!) job market. Part of it is due to the large demand from the lucrative consulting and finance industries. And part is due to the aforementioned proliferation of b-schools. There may be other reasons I dont know. But in an America where nearly every career path is looking more and more like a gamble, the econ PhD remains a rock of stabilitythe closest thing youll find to a direct escalator to the upper middle class.
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In econ, furthermore, you get exposed to a bunch of different disciplines; you get to learn some statistics, a little math, some sociology, a bit of psychology, and maybe even some history. Also, as an economist, your status as an intellectual will not disappear when you get a job. Even if you go to work as a consultant or a financier, your thoughts will be welcomed and considered by economists in the blogosphere. And you can even publish econ papers as a nonacademic. In fact, its also worth pointing out that econ is a field in which outsiders and mavericks are able to challenge the status quo. This is in spite of the economics professions well-known deference to intellectual authority figures. The simple fact is that in econ, you dont need money to advance new ideas, as you do in biology or chemistry. And you dont need math wizardry either, as you would if you wanted to introduce new ideas in physics.
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overvalued, they will start bidding up its price. But information diffuses slowly. Expect the econ PhD to lose its luster in five to 10 years, but that still gives you a window of time. Anyway, despite these caveats, the econ PhD still seems like quite a sweet deal to me. And compared to a hellish, soul-crushing, and economically dubious lab science PhD, econ seems like a slam dunk. There are very few such bargains left in the American labor market. Grab this one while its still on the shelves.
A version of this piece originally appeared on Noah Smiths blog. It has been reprinted with permission. We welcome your comments at ideas@qz.com.
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