Academia

Leland's last day at the Fed was Friday afternoon, and as the economists are wont to doing, an email was sent out to the department inviting everyone to go to Ceres for happy hour.

Despite Erik and Ryan trying to sway me, I'd already made up my mind that I wanted to go home. To be honest, I was never particularly close to Leland, and I'm not sure if any of the AEs could claim close bonds. But we do all have a healthy amount of respect, for his astounding work ethic and passion for economics. The ongoing joke is that the macro team's output is going to halve in the aftermath of Leland's departure. Moreover, Leland certainly has ample amounts of support and kinship from the macroeconomists.

Then Sumit (Chris' economist) came by, and asked why we were still dawdling, and why we weren't at Ceres. We made noises about not knowing anyone on the macro team, whereupon Sumit announced, "Well, that's ok. We're going to this thing and we're having a drink. Grab your bags, we're leaving." I gave Chris a stunned look and hastily grabbed my belongings. How could you not acquiesce? It was about as good as drinking with your profs.

Much to my surprise, a healthy crowd had gathered already, including Jeff and Francois from the macro team, Charlie Evans, the Chicago Fed president, and a handful of other AEs. I ordered a Blue Moon and sat back as they regaled us with Tales of Academia. Aside from Leland, who was leaving for grad school at Maryland, Ana was also there, and she'll be leaving for grad school at Berkeley. What advice then, would you give to an aspiring economist? Doesn't it seem like it's getting harder and harder every year to break into the field? Aren't all the good ideas already taken?

Jeff suggested looking for papers in third-rate journals from first-rate academics; it's an indication that they wrestled with a challenging idea and failed, so perhaps you can take a fresh look and solve the problem. He also suggested keeping up Fed ties, by say, working at the San Francisco Fed. This would also conveniently provide a place for you to escape when you need to write your dissertation.

Charlie gave some thoughts on giving presentations. Unfortunately, the first seminars you give are often your most important ones: job market seminars. If you skimp on background information, someone will say they don't understand the motivation behind this paper. If you give an elaborate literature review, others will invariably say they're only interested in seeing your regressions. How do you reconcile the contradictory opinions? It's practically impossible to strike a perfect balance; the best thing you can do is simply know your audience. Sumit: "Yeah Jeff, remember when I gave a seminar and you said you didn't like the title? I wasn't even past slide one!"

Sumit is a special case of an economist who was in the private sector and then left for a more academic position. (Generally, this only happens in reverse.) We asked if the transition had been easy, and he responded, "My recommendation for you guys is not to do what I did. There's a lot of disdain for private sector economists; you can never really come back after you've gone out there, and in many ways, I'm still paying for the six years I worked in industry." But why turn down the money, the hefty one or two million a year? Besides, it's not as though he doesn't work 12 hour days anyway at the Fed. "Well, that's not the same," Sumit replied. "That's a lifestyle choice. If I suddenly started working 8 hours a day tomorrow, no one would say anything. Even though I'm still working long hours, it's because I want to."

It took some pushing, but I'm glad I went. For the first time, I felt like a part of the economics field, as though I'd been initiated into an ancient guild of craftsmen. I realize this is silly, since I haven't even applied to grad school, nor am I confident that I want to apply, but for that shining hour, I could feel the invisible hand patting me on the back.

By the way, in case you ever wondered, Charlie is a gin & tonic kind of guy. In particular, a Beefeater gin kind of guy.