PhD economics with weak profile potential- need advice

[Xorak]

Hello,
 

I am from Western Europe and I had a question regarding my eligibility for Econ PhD programs. I assume my profile is very weak, but I was a bit in need of advice.

I hold a bachelor's degree in social-economic sciences from a low ranked (top 400 school), master's degree in Economics from the same university, and an additional research master in Economics from a top 75 univ. I used a GPA converter to convert my grades.

Undergrad: Social-economic Sciences (top 400)

GPA: 2.87 (ranked 9/70, was not trying for grades/PhD at this point)

Master 1: Economics (top 400)

GPA: 3.47 (ranked 2/16.) Got first or second of my degree for every course except for one. My master's thesis won an award.

Master 2: Research master in economics (top 75, need good grades to enter)

GPA: 2.87 (ranked 10/14)

During the 5 years of study, I failed an exam once.

GRE: Not taken yet.

Relevant courses and grades:
Undergrad.: Mathematical methodology (B), Statistics 1&2 (B), Intro to Economics (B), Intro Micro (C), Intro Macro (C), Intro Econometrics (C), Public Economics (A), International economics (A), industrial organization (C), Social-economic analysis (A+), Bachelor's project (B), Global Economics (A), History economic Thought (A). Wasn't thinking that grades mattered at this point.

Grad.: Public Economics (A), Financial Econometrics (B), Macroeconomics (A+), Applied Welfare economics (B), Environmental and transport economics (B), Research methods (C-), Master's thesis (A), Economic analysis of inequality (A+), Econometrics (A). Except for research methods, always ranked 1st or 2nd/16.

Research master: Advanced Microeconomics I (game theory+ec. decision making) (C), Advanced Microeconomics II (mechanism design+general equilibrium) (C-), Advanced Econometrics (C), Advanced Labour Economics (A), Master's thesis (B), Advanced Macroeconomics 1 (SVAR) (A), Advanced Macroeconomics 2 (DSGE) (B), Dynamic Methods (B).
 

Research: Only 2 master's thesis projects, one bachelor's project, almost one year as PhD-researcher at a quantitative public health department.

Research Interest: Public/applied micro/health/welfare
LoR: I dispose of two reference letters at the top 400 Univ. Both are economists, 'highest' publications would be journal of public economics, journal of economic theory, and multiple journal of health economics.

Additional relevant information:

As mentioned, I was not aware of the importance of grades/choosing more mathematical courses during my undergrad. I became aware during my first master's degree, where I mostly felt like I got the maximum grades possible except for 3 courses. My master's thesis won an award, and my  thesis supervisor strongly urged me to try for a PhD by following a research master's in economics. However, I did not have the financial means to get accommodation near the university, because of which I made the very big mistake to spend almost half the day commuting to pursue the degree (instead of working and then pursuing this degree). Ultimately, I felt like I couldn't defend my chances this year as well as I could have, but this of course is an easy thing to say and I cannot expect for committees to take this into account. Both of my thesis supervisors (and reference letters) are quite enthusiastic about my research capabilities.

Last year, I applied to some econ PhD programs (however without any guidance in this process so too randomly) and got some interviews, however I did not get anything in the end. At that point, I got a bit desperate as I did not have any idea about whether my profile was just too weak to get into an econ department anyways. One of my thesis supervisors had connections with a prestigious quantitative health economics/epidemiology statistics department and strongly recommended me to apply there, and I ultimately got this position.

I have been working there for a few months now. However, I have realized that my main interest still lies in academic economic research, and not in the health statistics journals. I have generous funding and I am allowed to aim for economic journals as long as there is an intersection with epidemiology (despite my supervisor not being an economist, but a programmer/statistician), but I still feel it is not ideal for an economic research career. Therefore, I was wondering if anyone could illuminate me on how weak my profile is or whether there is still any chance I could do my PhD at an economic school, which would give me a chance of an economic academic research career later.

Feel free to tell me if my profile is by far not enough, I just need to know to determine my options. In case I would stand a chance for a PhD program that could reasonably lead to an economic academic research career, could you tell me for which quality programs it would be worth applying for, and which not? My former supervisor told me the only way to find out is to apply everywhere, but I do not want to waste money in the application process if I would get kind of 'desk rejected'.

Thanks in advance, and apologies for the longer message or if this is not the place to post this!