ARTICLE

Greg Mankiw's Blog

2006-05-23 · 00:00 UTC ·Greg Mankiw ·2 min read

Brief

Mankiw's advice emphasizes building quantitative foundations and gaining diverse practical experience over focusing on specific economic subfields. He argues that passionate instructors matter more than course topics, since any area of economics can be engaging or dull depending on teaching quality. The summer internship strategy is particularly strategic - combining academic research experience with both public and private sector exposure to understand how economics applies across different contexts. His recommendation to attend research seminars despite initial confusion reflects a learning philosophy that immersion in advanced discourse accelerates understanding, even when much goes over one's head initially. The reading and news consumption advice positions The Economist and WSJ as essential sources for staying current with economic developments and analysis.

Why it matters

Harvard economist Greg Mankiw provides six practical recommendations for undergraduates considering economics careers:

Key details

  • [foundation] Prioritize math and statistics courses over specific economics topics
  • [experience] Use summers for diverse exposure: research assistant, government policy work, private sector
  • [development] Attend weekly economics seminars even when technical discussions seem incomprehensible
  • [resources] Follow The Economist weekly and Wall Street Journal daily for economics news
Cleaned source text

title: Greg Mankiw's Blog

author: Greg Mankiw

content_type: article

published: 2006-05-23T00:00:00

source_url: https://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2006/05/advice-for-aspiring-economists.html

word_count: 406

Advice for Aspiring Economists

A student from abroad emails the following question:

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,

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

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.

hereis a list of recommended readings.5. Follow economics news. The best weekly is The Economist. The best daily is the Wall Street Journal.

this paperof mine.*Updates*: Here is some advice from