Are Economists Going the Way of the Dinosaur?

For decades, a PhD in economics enabled stable, prestigious careers across universities, corporations, and government. Economists provided pricing and profit strategies, guided policy, and supplied scientific authority through bodies such as the Council of Economic Advisers. The profession was treated as a tool for navigating global commerce using models. Student interest and hiring have since declined as federal funding cuts reduce university budgets. Corporate demand has shifted toward fintech and artificial intelligence, making economists’ quantitative skills seem less necessary. Government economists have been laid off, and prominent economists are increasingly associated with unconventional policy approaches. The result is a sharp negative shock to demand for the profession.

"For 70 years, a PhD in economics was the ticket to a comfortable and often prestigious career. Universities kept up a steady hiring pace to meet the robust student demand. Corporate offices looked to the profession for pricing and profit strategies. Governments depended on trained economists to guide policy and imbue US leadership with scientific authority, embodied in the president's powerful Council of Economic Advisers (CEA). For decades, economics worked like a sextant for navigating the murky waters of world commerce, whose mysteries could be charted if only one had the right models."

"No longer, though. Last July, The New York Times ran a puzzled look into the unhappy fate of the professional economist. Student interest in the field is down as federal funding cuts slash university budgets. A fintech-filled corporate sector obsessed with so-called artificial intelligence sees the economist's highly quantitative skill set as redundant. The Trump administration has laid off government economists as part of its austerity push, while its former CEA chair (and current Federal Reserve Board member), Stephen Miran, is best known as the face of Trump's unorthodox tariffs regime."

"To put it in the profession's terms, economists are facing a big negative shock to their demand curve. A similarly downcast beat thrums through Eswar S. Prasad's new book, The Doom Loop: Why the World Economic Order Is Spiraling Into Disorder. Economists of his ilk (i.e., elite, credentialed ones, in hi"

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