If you want to become a research assistant to academic economists, I would recommend taking econometrics courses with a coding component. A course using Stata is probably best for this, but R might also be fine. The essential requirement for most of those jobs is being able to clean data and run econometric tests, usually within Stata.
I agree with this, but to add on since the post mentioned 3-4 courses.
I would say if you’re picking 3, definitely econometrics, stats/probability to supplement analysis skills. For the third, I would say probably development economics (both to visibly show interest in the topic and have a professor you can try to build a relationship for resources/recommendations in that network). Two potential caveats- if you think the ability to leverage the network of the behavioral econ professor is better, or if that’s a substantially more research skill building class that’s also a pretty good option. Other caveat would be that depending on the level of the course, the Econometrics course could plausibly require or at least benefit a lot from better linear algebra skills- that’d suggest econometrics/stats/lin alg.
If you’re taking 4 to stand out to employers: same logic as I described above probably applies. Would also add that depending on grad school being a possibility for you, many PhDs require or strongly suggest linear algebra.
One final thought here: I’m treating this as if you need to stay within that list- if there is an option to go outside that list (maybe to a CS or stats department?), learning programming/statistical computing skills might be among the highest value couple options.
Strongly agreed with both of the comments above. One additional strategy to consider would be looking into whether any of the professors in your school’s economics department typically hire part-time undergrad research assistants. If so, taking a class with one of those professors and impressing them is a good way to get a job, which can then serve as a stepping-stone to RA jobs at other institutions (since you’ll pick up skills and get someone who can write you a recommendation letter).
If you want to become a research assistant to academic economists, I would recommend taking econometrics courses with a coding component. A course using Stata is probably best for this, but R might also be fine. The essential requirement for most of those jobs is being able to clean data and run econometric tests, usually within Stata.
I agree with this, but to add on since the post mentioned 3-4 courses.
I would say if you’re picking 3, definitely econometrics, stats/probability to supplement analysis skills. For the third, I would say probably development economics (both to visibly show interest in the topic and have a professor you can try to build a relationship for resources/recommendations in that network). Two potential caveats- if you think the ability to leverage the network of the behavioral econ professor is better, or if that’s a substantially more research skill building class that’s also a pretty good option. Other caveat would be that depending on the level of the course, the Econometrics course could plausibly require or at least benefit a lot from better linear algebra skills- that’d suggest econometrics/stats/lin alg.
If you’re taking 4 to stand out to employers: same logic as I described above probably applies. Would also add that depending on grad school being a possibility for you, many PhDs require or strongly suggest linear algebra.
One final thought here: I’m treating this as if you need to stay within that list- if there is an option to go outside that list (maybe to a CS or stats department?), learning programming/statistical computing skills might be among the highest value couple options.
Strongly agreed with both of the comments above. One additional strategy to consider would be looking into whether any of the professors in your school’s economics department typically hire part-time undergrad research assistants. If so, taking a class with one of those professors and impressing them is a good way to get a job, which can then serve as a stepping-stone to RA jobs at other institutions (since you’ll pick up skills and get someone who can write you a recommendation letter).