A career as an economist opens up a plethora of job opportunities but to be successful in this field, one must undergo a rigorous training in different scenarios, says Garima Singal
As the world is becoming diversified and yet integrated, society needs people with skills applicable to a wide variety of problems ranging across multiple disciplines. That is the reason for the increasing demand for economists. Economics is more than just its subject matter; it’s a set of tools that can be applied to any topic under the sun. This tool-kit nature of economics offers a plethora of career options, some of which are expounded on below.
In the Private Sector
Consultancy: Firms such as Ernst & Young, McKinsey, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte, KPMG often hire economists as consultants to analyze the economic activities of business organizations and to propose changes that would make their structure more efficient.
Investment banking: Investment banking institutions that assist individuals, corporations, as well as Governments in decisions related to trading of derivatives and securities, mergers and acquisitions, and other investment decisions require people with skills to understand varying market conditions and make predictions about valuation of different assets conditional on this information. Economists best fulfill this role. S
Data analysis: Given the training in data-intensive fields like econometrics, an important skill that economists acquire is the ability to analyse and decipher patterns in numbers. Consequently, the demand for data analysts is geared towards those with a major in economics. There are several companies like McKinsey Knowledge Centre, Absolute Data, NVDIA Corporations, and CRISIl that hire data analysts.
Marketing specialists: These specialists identify potential customers by calculating the demand for products and services offered by a firm or its competitors. They develop pricing strategies while ensuring the firm’s customers are satisfied, and maximising the firm’s profits. They also examine trends that indicate the need for new products or services. Given that demand, pricing, and profits are all subject matter of economics, economists happen to be the obvious choice for this profile. As can be inferred from hiring decisions of firms like Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer.
Journalism: The interdependence of several global economies, as well as the foray of economics into other fields like technology, psychology and even physics, has made it important for essential for the press to bank on employees with economic expertise. There are several leading dailies and news channels in the country to whom economists are indispensable.
In the Public Sector
Policy analyst: Decision-making in the context of public policy must be guided by economic rationality. Public policy requires economic advice, economic administration, as well as guidelines for implementation of development policy and programs. Therefore, the Government has posts for economic advisors in all ministries and departments that require inputs on economic implications of policy-related matters. To become an economic advisor for the Government of India, one must enter the Indian Economics Services Division in the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance; and to do so one has to clear the IES test conducted by The Union Public Service Commission. The eligibility for appearing for the test is a master’s in Economics.
Statistician: Owing to data-heavy training of economists, they often fulfill the role of statisticians for the government. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation specifically requires econometricians to conduct careful analysis and appraisal of different Government policies and their performance on ground.
Academician: To supplement the rising demand for economics as a discipline, there has been an increasing demand for economic expertise. Academic economists are expected to possess in-depth knowledge of the subject matter as well as the ability to apply analytical tools to various context. One can become an ad-hoc Professor for the Delhi University after doing an MA in Economics and clearing the National Eligibility Test.
However, this profile is not limited to teaching as academic economists also undertake research in one or more of the ever-expanding sub-fields of economics. Research in economics is both empirical — deriving its conclusions from data, and theoretical. Both the private and the public sector covet research economists, major employers being the World Bank and other UN subsidiaries, J-PAl, Genesis, National Bureau of Economic Research, FICCI, Competition Commission of India.
While an education in Economics does open a multitude of avenues, one must not lose sight of the fact that to be a successful economist one must undergo a rigorous training in different scenarios even as underlying assumptions are tweaked and twisted. This calls for an education that takes its roots in application-based learning and consciously aims to move away from rote and memorisation centric learning. In this respect, international universities like the london School of Economics, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology fare much better as their curriculum focuses on building a sound foundation through emphasis on solving problems that mimic the kind one may face in real life and by constantly questioning the students’ understanding of the principles of economics by asking them to apply these principle to a myriad of unconventional contexts.
(The writer is Assistant professor of Economics at Indian School of Business and Finance, New Delhi)