What are the qualifications for becoming an economist?

Answer 1

I believe it depends on what level of an economist you want to be and in what capacity.

The title "economist" is not by any means the only job you can get straight out of college with a bachelors in economics. Its a very powerful degree and many of the things you would be learning are equally applied in jobs that do not have the label "economist", such as financial analyst.

So the question must first be what kind of job are you pursuing?

Well in the government their are many entry level positions with the title "economist" that only require a bachelors in economics. Some of these jobs are with the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, or the Bureau of Economic Analysis. However their are plentiful jobs within the Department of Labor or Department of Commerce and the Department of Agriculture.

So, for many entry level economist positions in the government a bachelors in economics, with at least 21 hours in economics, and 3 or more hours in statistics, calculus and accounting.

This however is for the title "Economist I". Their are most times level I, II, III. Level 2 often times signifies a masters degree in economics or a related field and level 3 a Ph.d. However, many positions will substitute experience for graduate education.

Now if however you want to work as an economist in the corporate arena you could most likely obtain a job performing economic analysis, but as I said before often times the job label will not be economist, it may be something like market analyst.

So even with just a bachelors you can find a really good job.

However, if you want to work as a professor in a university you will have to have at least a masters degree to lecture and if you want tenure you most certainly will need a Ph.D. Additionally, if you want to work for a economic consulting firm they also often require graduate degrees in economics.

The thing to remember is that some graduate degree may not buy you what you are looking for. As a student of economics you should evaluate your opportunity costs of taking additional years of school and its cost and forced sacrifice of wages that are forgone.

So the qualifications in my opinion are:

1. Bachelors degree in economics

2. Strong understanding of statistics, calculus, accounting and law

3. A passion for what economics is all about. (This may be the most important, you have to have a passion for this, other wise you will be discouraged by all the math that the curriculum will throw at you. Economics is exciting, but you have to keep in mind some of it will be more boring but this is your foundation so dont give up.)

4. Maybe a masters or Ph.D depending on your goals.

I recommend reading books like Freakonomics, The Armchair Economist, The Naked Economist and the other everyday economics books to really make the material exciting. Steven Levitt the Chicago Ph.D economist takes the subject and really makes it interesting.

Remember that economics is about setting up a tool box, you have to have skills to get the job done. This means you need to also have an interest in more than just economics unless you just plan to teach it.

Check out http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos055.htm it will give you a lot more info about everything to do with the field and application of being an economist.

I hope this helped.

My name is Berlin and if anybody out their wants to set up a network of upcoming economists let me know. I am an economics major with a finance minor. I figure I might as well get to know you all now since we will be working together in the future. Hit me up, maybe we can help each other out.

My email: BerlinHaugen@gmail.com

Economics Rocks!

Good Luck