Resources
LSE Economics Applicant Mentoring Programme (AMP)
Entering a top economics PhD program is a highly competitive and enigmatic process, with success relying on a mix of highly demanding expectations and luck. Navigating this path can be particularly challenging for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds — such as first generation, low income, those from developing countries, and other social minorities — due to knowledge gaps in what makes for a strong PhD application.
To break these informational barriers, we, a group of LSE econ PhD students, now in partnership with graduate students from Cambridge, Oxford, UCL and Warwick, run the Economics Applicant Mentoring Programme (AMP) to offer personalized mentorship to aspiring PhD applicants worldwide.
Learn about the AMP and how to apply here: LSE page and AMP website.
If you are considering an academic career in economics and seek advice on where to start, please feel free to reach out.
Relevant:
Stansbury and Schultz (JEP 2023) article on the lack of socioeconomic diversity in economics
Brad Chattergoon's blog on barriers to entry to economics profession, what is a pre-doc?
Finding RAships and Pre-docs:
Harvard Opportunity Insights, HBS Predoc, Research Associates
Stanford SIEPR Predoc, GSB Research Fellows, King Center Predoc
UChicago Becker-Friedman Predoc, Booth Research Professionals
Best practices for data cleaning and analysis:
IPA / Poverty Action guide for RAs
Stata hacks:
Jeremiah Dittmar's LSE Stata for Public Policy
Todd Jones 🦊 (@toddrjones) / Twitter
Asjar Naqvi's The Stata Guide / Medium and GitHub
Fahad Mirza (@theFstat) / Twitter
Website building and typesetting documents:
Pascal Michaillat's design webpage
Writing economics well:
Goldin and Katz on writing job market paper
Plamen Nikolov's Writing tips for economics: 2023-24 edition
Greg Mankiw's blog on how to write well
Job market:
Harvard Economics advice on approaching the job market, flyouts