With discussion of the Polar Vortex still fresh as storms once again crash through northern and eastern North America, and the usual grey skies still hang low over much of Europe, it’s perhaps just the right time to start thinking about summer. While beach vacations and outdoor adventure might be what’s on your mind, now is also the time to start planning for summer school.

On Wednesday, January 29, INOMICS released the Economics Job Market Report 2013 (UK and Ireland). This report, based on the findings of the Economics Job Market Survey conducted in 2013, introduces the reader to various aspects of the job market in economics, business and finance, concentrating primarily on the academic field.

It is no secret that Summer Schools are among the most visited types of Announcement on INOMICS. As many PhD and Masters students aim to be awarded external funding or need to go through complex bureaucratic procedures inside their own institutions before they can attend, their decision about which Summer School(s) to attend often needs to be made several months ahead.

INOMICS is probably the best-known and most reputable tool for finding academic conferences, especially for events focusing on economics and finance-related disciplines. While the majority of new users still find out about INOMICS through word of mouth, a much faster growing part of users lands on INOMICS when searching for specific conferences on Google.

Econ Job Market in the UK & Ireland: the new INOMICS Report is available for free download.

One year ago, we published information about the Top 10 economics departments in Europe  to support the educational choices of new professionals. Now we want to direct the attention of our readers to an overview of European institutions from a research approach. The purpose of the following list is to guide people who are interested in developing their careers as economics researchers in Europe in collaboration with top economics authors.

There are a number of disciplines one cannot avoid when purusing a degree in economics. In earlier articles we have looked at resources for econometrics, statistics and other quantitative subjects, so now it is high time to cover fields related to microeconomics. Below we have gathered a list of useful links and resources for those interested in game theory – the starting point for students focusing on auctions, organization theory, strategic management and so on.

The annual American Economic Association Meeting is a well-known event bringing together some of the brightest minds in economics and probably counting as one of the largest gatherings of young academics in one place. Here at INOMICS we are delighted to have been a part of this annual gathering for the second year in a row, as besides attendance of exceptional academic sessions, it is also a rare opportunity to meet and greet our users and readers personally.

At times it is hard to believe how fast time flies – yet another year is over! 2013 was an exciting year for the INOMICS blog: in 12 months, the number of readers quadrupled, the blog was launched in 3 additional languages (Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese), and we got ever more inspiration to share interesting and useful resources, research and stories with the academic community.

Even though many (especially young and less experienced) job candidates attend interviews with an anticipation of being assessed, in reality the assessment always happens in both directions. And the more that a talented applicant has to offer, the pickier he or she can be when making a final decision.

The Christmas break is approaching and all university departments are getting busy finalizing their end-of-year work. For busy marketers and conference organizers a Christmas break might seem not to be the best time of the year to promote their courses and conferences to a wider audience. However, our experience at INOMICS confirms that it is not exactly true. Of course, much depends on your target audience: but while for many December 25th will be almost certainly dedicated to family commitments, for many the days before and after Christmas represent one of the few times of the year that they can actually spend searching more deeply for information in their field of interest, especially with regard to extra training and conferences.

Econometrics is a thorough discipline that demands time and effort to be mastered. For many people who want to pursue a degree in economics it serves as an obstacle, but as we’ve shown before, there are many resources you can use to your advantage to become proficient in it: blogs and podcasts can introduce you to the topic and give practical advice, free online courses will incentivize you to learn systematically and increase your ability to perform a research using different econometrics and statistical software like “R” or “Stata”, and YouTube channels can greatly support your studies by giving access to lectures and tutorials of great professors at any time convenient for you.

 There are many reasons why institutions and individuals engage in conference organization, be it an international congress or a local workshop on a specific area of economics or finance. In academia, it is a great way to publicize your research work, to educate a wider public about a certain issue or simply to bring together experts from the same field and share the state of research. In business, it is the ultimate way to expand a network, market your company and often pave the way to future clients. Regardless of the type of institution, all conference organizers face the same challenges, especially when organizing an event for the first time.

Figure 1. Average number of applications per position

The Report is based on a survey between April and June 2013, in which 2,380 professionals and recruiters in the academic job market for economists answered questions about salaries, international professional mobility, the value of different levels of academic degree, and other issues related to economics and finance careers.

As previously mentioned in our articles about Spanish professionals moving to South America and Brazil as a new destination for skilled migration, Latin America is becoming ever more attractive in terms of professional development for people from all over the world. Latin American migration trends are undoubtedly connected to demographic and economic indicators for the region. In some cases, countries like Brazil stand out thanks to promising conditions for foreign employees, or increasing living standards and wages for the higher-educated workforce.

Pursuing an academic career is very different from working in the private sector in many ways, including in terms of the application and recruitment process, even before you start in your first job!

Yesterday INOMICS released the Economics Job Market Report 2013 (Worldwide Overview). The report contains insights about the academic job market, compiled from answers from almost 2,500 economists and recruiters from all over the world who completed a survey earlier this year. The findings of the report include salaries, recruiters’ and candidates’ employment preferences, regional disparities, skills & specializations most in demand and other general trends in the economics job market.

If you're interested in attending a summer school this year, now is the time to start planning. Once you've selected a  school to attend and been accepted, here are some of the ways that you can make the most out of your summer school experience.

There are many great summer programs our there, but wading through the sea of options might leave you feeling a little overwhelmed.

In recent months we have published a series of articles about the best economics departments in Europe, Asia and Latin America. After covering the methodologies of ranking for universities in Latin America, we wrote about the best economics institutions in Chile, Colombia and Brazil.

This Monday, October 14th, Eugene F. Fama
 and Lars Peter Hansen
 (University of Chicago, USA) and Robert J. Shiller (
Yale University, USA) won the Nobel Prize in Economics. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded them “for their empirical analysis of asset prices”.

Since its foundation by Portuguese colonists, Brazil, the largest country in Latin America, has experienced an important immigrant flow. Over time, the Brazilian government has influenced this flow by implementing policies that support the needs of the economy. If during the first half of the 20th century governmental policies targeted low-skilled immigrants for work in the agricultural sector, in the last quarter of the century the government aimed to attract highly skilled immigrants to the country. The new trend was marked by the adoption of a new immigration law in 1981, which introduced new processes for visas and work permits and created a number of obstacles for low skilled migration.