Book review: How to Be a Successful Economist

There seems to have been a succession of books on how to be an economist in recent years. First, there was Michael Weisbach's 2021 book The Economist's Craft (which I reviewed here). And then Marc Bellamare's 2022 book Doing Economics (which I reviewed here). In 2022, the book How to Be a Successful Economist was published, written by Vicky Pryce, Andy Ross, Alvin Birdi, and Ian Harwood.

Unlike the former two books, How to Be a Successful Economist isn't pitched at explaining how to succeed as an academic economist. Instead, it aims to explain how to craft a career in economics outside of academia. That aim is much more difficult, given the variety of career paths that economists may choose. However, the book takes a unique approach. Instead of the authors' take alone, the book is built on a foundation of interviews undertaken with nearly 30 economics graduates, ranging from new graduates who have only been in the workforce for a few years, to top businesspeople and government economists, to luminaries such as Professor Lord Nicholas Stern. Quotes from those interviews suffuse the text, giving it both depth and credibility. Even better, the interviews themselves are available online at https://learninglink.oup.com/access/pryce-ross1e (and click on the 'student resources' link from there - unfortunately, the videos and other resources are only available to those who have purchased the book).

The focus of the book on becoming a private sector or public sector, and not an academic, economist is refreshing and welcome. Obviously, the skillset required of economists is very different between academia. In that respect, the book summarised the results of a survey of employers undertaken by the Economics Network in the UK:

The most highly valued of the skills reported by employers who took part in the 2019 Economics Network survey were, in order of importance: the ability to apply theories to the real world; communication skills; and data analysis. Also highly regarded were collaborative skills and more general transferable skills such as time keeping and critical thinking.

The book provides a lot of excellent advice, as well as pointing to some excellent online resources. Unfortunately, as might be the case for many books that point to resources online, some of those resources are no longer accessible. For example, a website www.communicatingeconomics.com sounded excellent to me, but the website appears to no longer exist. Given that the book is only two years old, this was extra disappointing. Nevertheless, other resources are available (albeit at different web addresses than those in the book), such as the ONS Guide to data visualisation (now available here) and the Government Statistical Service's guide to data visualisation (now available here). I also especially liked this advice to economics students, about mathematics and statistics:

Although mathematical skills always complement economics, the level of mathematics you will need depends on your economist career path, but you will need good data skills wherever you go as an economist.

There is also good advice on what an economist does, in terms of providing advice to others, especially that:

...to be useful to decision makers you must not only be interesting but also provide agency... "Agency" means helping others to prepare for and/or to decide what to do next.

Good practical advice for graduating students is very welcome. Where the book falls a bit short is a section where it advocates for eclecticism in economics (as part of a broader and more diverse approach to economics), and a section that explains the basics of, and importance of, cost-benefit analysis. These two sections felt a bit 'forced' in this book, and didn't really gel with the rest of the narrative. While both things are no doubt important, I'm not convinced that they are important in a book giving advice to new economists, since more detailed treatments are available elsewhere. Similarly, while the book also provides some good advice on how to approach the job application and interviewing process, I feel that there are better more general guides available. There simply isn't enough that is 'unique' about the process of applying for jobs within economics to justify a section devoted to it. Nevertheless, some students might find it helpful.

For an international reader, the book also suffers from a strong focus on the UK. Many of the specific examples will not be helpful for students outside of the UK context. The authors are attuned to this though, and note in a footnote that future editions of the book may broaden the scope.

I enjoyed reading the book for the range of resources that were provided. I liked the initial sections attempting to sell economics to a casual student, and I will definitely use some of their approach in my Open Day presentation to students next year. I also liked Figure 10.2 in the concluding section, which summarised "mainstream economic reasons for intervention by the state", which read very much like the syllabus of my ECONS102 class! However, while the resources that the book highlights are useful, and there is lots of good advice, I'm not sure that I would recommend the whole book to students to read. Instead, reading some sections, and accessing the other resources directly, would probably serve them better.