Ian Fillmore (Ph.D., University of Chicago) is Assistant Professor of Economics at Washington University in St. Louis. His research focuses on the economics of education and education markets, the effects of technological change on workers, and optimal taxation.
Is being really interested in economics a good enough reason to major in economics?
I remember during my Freshman year of college having the sudden realization that just because I found a subject interesting, that didn't mean I had to do it for a living. So, just because you find economics interesting, that doesn't mean you should necessarily become a professional economist. But economics can still be a terrific major even if you don't become an economist. Learning to "think like an economist" will open your eyes to important concepts like tradeoffs, opportunity cost, and thinking about seen and unseen forces and consequences. Economics is also a great way to train yourself to weigh empirical evidence and distinguish between correlation and causation. Finally, the economics major provides skills that are applicable in a wide variety of careers, so you have a lot of flexibility with what you want to do after you graduate.
James DeNicco (Ph.D., Drexel University) is director of the Principles of Economics program and also coordinator of the Dead Economists Society at Rice University, where he has been awarded the Malcolm Gillis Award for Distincion in Undergraduate Teaching.
A recent study suggested that graduate students experience depression at six times the rate of the general population, and that "anxiety symptoms among economics Ph.D. students is comparable to the prevalence found in incarcerated populations.” Does that ring true to you. Does it have anything to do with how the subject is taught?
Well, I have often described the first year or two of getting a PhD in economics as intellectual hazing. I guess it somewhat depends on the person, but it is a difficult time for most people and there is a lot of pressure and sacrifice. In my case I had to travel over an hour each way to get to Drexel. I was 29 and married when I started the program and already had my first child and a mortgage. That certainly made it tougher for me.
I think it may be how it is taught. Most places take the fire hose approach to teaching the material. You have a lot of information flowing your direction and at times it seems impossible to take it all in. I found I would really understand the material a semester or two after I first learned it and started using it. I understand why it is that way though. 5 years is long enough in grad school. I wouldn’t want it to take 7 and that might be required to have a more comfortable pace and incremental curriculum.
Now, after the first two years for me things changed completely. The first two years were mostly classroom work and qualifying exams. After that it was research and teaching, which I throughly enjoyed. I had a great mentor and dissertation committee, which means a lot of course.
I have heard that you have "Supply" and "Demand" tattooed on your biceps. Have you come across many other economics-themed tattoos?
Lol, up until now I am the only one I know crazy enough to get an Econ themed tattoo. Demand is on the right bicep and supply is on the left so when I do pull downs at the gym, demand is downward sloping and supply is upward sloping!
