Is it just more of a personal pursuit for those that love studying or does it have tangible benefits in the real world?
Both results are possible. The “purpose” is to achieve expert level knowledge in economics. What you do with that will vary. @ichiro
Thanks for the input. So how would it help someone in their career. An MBA makes sense to me. But I just don’t see why getting a Masters in Econ would be worth it.
Simple: some companies, government agencies, and think tanks want people with expert-level knowledge of economics, @ichiro
It’s beneficial for public admin and NGO roles, non-research. Also in banking/finance, hiring managers look at the MA Econ for its quantitative rigor (econometrics/stats/programming) vs an MBA; the quantitative skill set of the typical MBA grad is all over the map. Plus, MBAs are more beneficial (for both the student and the program) when a student has years of actual management experience, so the MA Econ or MSF is good for providing additional technical skills for the lower-level roles. If for no other reason, a master’s degree lessens the possibility that less competent (graduate educated) colleagues will move past you into more senior roles!