Can I get a good paying career with a BA in economics?
Difficult question. Overall, I think who you know always makes a difference in your life, but Economics is a very broad subject, not to mention the very broad job opportunities. You can become an actuary, financial analyst, high school teacher, go to grad school, do something on Wall Street (if you’re lucky), you name it.
Finally, a “good paying career” doesn’t make sense to me. You build your own career as you gain more experience on the job.
As @econcalc said, there’s a wide variety of job opportunities you can do with an economics degree. It really depends on where you go to school, what your gpa is, relevant work experience, etc. So to answer your question, you “can”. Now to more realistically answer your question, it requires you to define what you consider “good paying”, time-span, and if you mean salary wise or hourly wise.
Just to give you a general answer though; according to [Payscale - Highest Paying Undergraduate Degrees](The Highest-Paying Careers with a Bachelor's Degree for 2018 | Payscale).
Economics is the #52 highest paying out of 202 degrees. With a median starting salary of $48,000 and mid-life median salary of $83,400.
This is across the US so if you live in a city where the cost of living is higher than other places you can assume it would be a higher salary, same with if the cost of living is lower than the average for the country you could expect a lower salary.
Economics is actually listed at #19 with a $51,400 starting salary and a $97,700 mid-career salary. I think banking is a good route. I had a banking internship going into my third year of econ at a Big Ten school and I’m looking to get into the industry when I graduate next year.
Yea @uofiapplicant is right, I was looking at business economics but everything else I believe is accurate.