Masters in applied stats vs. PhD in economics?

[bri8548]

I'm not really sure where to post this, so I think I will try both here and the econ forum.

I'm considering grad programs and up until now I've been set on getting a PhD in economics, but a professor recently suggested that I look into a few applied stats programs. Since my primary interest is in econometrics and applied stats, this might be a better fit and somewhat easier to get into a better school.

Does anyone have any thoughts about the benefits of doing an applied stats program vs. a PhD in economics or vice versa?

(I am a math major with a lot of upper division courses in modeling and probability theory so I have the background for either program)

[rockrs]

Well, just go for the stat. It would give you more options after graduation (we do not know how the economic climate will be). Think about NCSU, University of Minnesota... Further, if you care about finance this would mean forecasting etc..I personally do not think that econ grad program, except the very top (duke, chicago, berkeley, ...), would give you that simply because it is based on stochastic processes and/or real analysis...On the other hand, if you care more for the politics side - policy evaluation, effect of government measures on bla bla... again, there are world bank employees in high positions who still publish articles doing linear regression, but I think this would rather change drastically in near future. With the huge data availability nowadays, we go onto the multivariate, even high-dimensional scale, so a PhD in applied stat with multivariate statistics focus would be best.. The usual things for economics - strategies, policies, currents - you are going to be educated enough to read them yourself, say, if you work in the area...Good luck.