page_title: Economist
section_title: Professions
hierarchical_section_title: Economist / Professions
caption_attribution_description: English: The honourable Mr. Alan Greenspan testifies before the House Financial Services Committee.
context_page_description: An economist is a practitioner in the social science discipline of economics.
  The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are many sub-fields, ranging from the broad philosophical theories to the focused study of minutiae within specific markets, macroeconomic analysis, microeconomic analysis or financial statement analysis, involving analytical methods and tools such as econometrics, statistics, economics computational models, financial economics, mathematical finance and mathematical economics.
context_section_description: Economists work in many fields including academia, government and in the private sector, where they may also "...study data and statistics in order to spot trends in economic activity, economic confidence levels, and consumer attitudes. They assess this information using advanced methods in statistical analysis, mathematics, computer programming [and] they make recommendations about ways to improve the efficiency of a system or take advantage of trends as they begin."
  In contrast to regulated professions such as engineering, law or medicine, there is not a legally required educational requirement or license for economists. In academia, most economists have a Ph.D. degree in Economics. In the U.S. Government, on the other hand, a person can be hired as an economist provided that they have a degree that included or was supplemented by 21 semester hours in economics and three hours in statistics, accounting, or calculus.
  A professional working inside of one of many fields of economics or having an academic degree in this subject is often considered to be an economist. In addition to government and academia, economists are also employed in banking, finance, accountancy, commerce, marketing, business administration, lobbying and non- or not-for profit organizations.
  Politicians often consult economists before enacting economic policy. Many statesmen have academic degrees in economics.
caption: Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, who obtained his Ph.D. in economics from New York University, testifies before the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services
exif: {}