Economics BA (econometics essential?)

Weinberg
Sun, 29 Nov 2009 10:40:23 +0000

You could still get into a public policy program without taking econometrics. You may even do very well in a public policy program without econometrics. After that you may be hired as as a legislative assistant, but you will ultimately be a greatly handicapped legislative advisor (at least in terms of things relating to the economy).

The problem I believe will be that you won’t be able to read anything about economics done by qualified people. The goal of most BA programs now is not to make economists out of people but to at least give them the fundamental tools to understand what economists are saying (all that bullcrap about actually understanding the economy is obviously a myth perpetrated by people who don’t actually understand anything about economics). Then when you actually get a job you can read up and digest properly what people have written about the specific area of the economy you are working in (assuming you didn’t go to law school or get a PhD). If you can’t understand econometrics, basically, you’ll need an interpreter to perform your duties of interpreting for the legislator. It will be the incompetent leading the incompetent. Thus, America!