Economics & Policy
Economist
What is the actual cost of a policy decision, and who bears it? Economists answer questions like that, working inside governments, central banks, consultancies, and increasingly tech companies. The role blends theory, data work, and the craft of explaining complex trade-offs to people who have to choose.
Days involve building time-series forecasts, designing cost-benefit analyses, and writing memos that get cited in real decisions. Students who enjoyed both calculus and reading history tend to feel at home. A strong economist holds their priors loosely and lets the data correct them.
You grow into the role through a deep undergraduate base, often a graduate degree, and steady practice with Python for analysis and clear prose for communication.
US$178,711 median salary in United States¹
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Why do people sign up for the gym in January and stop going in March? Behavioral economists work on questions like this, but with rigor — pairing nudges and choice architecture with experiments that can actually tell whether an intervention moved the needle. The role lives at the seam of psychology, statistics, and policy. Days might involve designing a randomized trial, defending a causal inference method to a skeptical stakeholder, or writing up a finding so a non-academic audience can act on it. Students grow into this path by getting comfortable with both the EAST framework and tools like PyMC for Bayesian inference. The best work here is honest about effect sizes, not just direction.
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Economics & Policy
Policy Analyst
US$95,799
Behind every regulation that shapes daily life — a tax credit, a zoning law, a new safety standard — is a memo. Often a short one. Policy analysts are the people who write those memos, and the research that backs them. The role exists at the intersection of evidence and judgment: synthesizing academic literature, running cost-benefit analyses, mapping stakeholders, and translating all of it into language a decision-maker can act on in a morning briefing. Students grow into this work through public policy or economics coursework, paired with the discipline of writing tightly. The strongest analysts stay rigorous about what the evidence can and cannot support, and respect the political reality their recommendations land in.
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