What good are economists?

This opinion says economists have created tremendous value and wealth for the economy.

Fwd: (2014Fall) PRIN OF ECON - MICRO: Median Earnings by Major

The bottom of this article has a nice search feature that gives you the # of majors, median, 75th and 25th percentile earnings, and the % working in jobs, broken into three categories that I don't fully understand. The medians for Economics and Business Economics are $47,000 and $46,000 respectively.  Here are some other medians: Petroleum Eng. - $110,000, Finance - $47,000, Accounting - $45,000, Computer and Information Systems - $45,000, Psychology - $41,000, General Business - $40,000, Business Mgmt. and Admin. - $38,000, Marketing and Marketing Research - $38,000, Political Science and Government - $38,000, History - $34,000, and Social Work - $30,000.

" These figures don't necessarily mean that switching majors will bring a big financial boost. Economics majors, for example, earn $7,000 — 18 percent — more on average than "general business" majors, but economics is also generally considered a harder and more prestigious major, and therefore tends to draw more top students; it's unlikely all those business majors could have gotten themselves a $7,000 raise just by switching to econ. Similarly, majoring in astrophysics won't net a $62,000 salary for someone who flunks Calculus 101. And of course, if a huge surge of students really did decide to follow the dollar signs into petroleum engineering, the glut of supply would likely drive down wages."

Is college worth the cost?

This report says that the answer is a qualified yes, with a 2-year degree being a better bet than a 4-year degree for many people, and majors that stress analytical and quantitative skill (cough, economics) being better bets than majors that do not: 

Is the typical economics curriculum ideal?

This article and the folks at the Institute for New Economic Thinking say "No" and offer alternatives.

Controlled field experiments

My inspiration du jour is controlled field experiments. To learn more, read The Why Axis or visit this TED talk by Esther Duflo.

Teaching econ to MBA students

Here is a nice post discussing economics, MBA students, and Schools of Business.

College major and earnings

Here is a story from NPR on the most and least lucrative college majors. Here is the full report from 2009 which prompted the story. Notice that Business Economics has the highest median earnings for Business and Economics has the highest median earnings for Social Sciences. The story points out that employees consider a number of factors when choosing a major or job besides salary - salary matters but salary is not all that matters.

Hal Varian Answers Questions

Here is a transcript of questions for and answers from Hal Varian, Chief Economist @ Google. Read it if you enjoy reading how smart people think and write. It is also a plug for learning econometrics. 

Econ on Demand

Click here to see some good video clips discussing a variety of topics in economics 

My Life as an Instructor

Click here to see Rodney Dangerfield's first class in economics.

What Economics Majors Earn

 Numerous studies show that students who major in economics tend to have above-average incomes.

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/what-the-top-1-of-earners-majored-in/#more-141451

http://salary.com/8-college-degrees-that-will-earn-your-money-back/slide/6/