<p>Maybe I should rephrase it this way.
Which of these two PhDs is better to get to do top international development work?
How would the jobs I could get with them differ?
Thanks.</p>
<p>Oh come on, nobody??</p>
<p>Probably public policy, although it's difficult to generalize. Much of it obviously depends on the prestige of your school (and the concomitant networking) and the quality of your dissertation. </p>
<p>But you don't get a PhD because you want to do international development work. You can get a master's degree for that, but not a Phd. A PhD should only be obtained by those who want to become researchers and academics.</p>
<p>There are international development masters that you can obtain; start looking around at school's you're interested in.</p>
<p>International development work isn't just working for some place like World Vision or USAID managing projects, sakky. Project management's exactly the one kind of "international development" work that I know I don't want to do, though I've no other opinions on what I'd like TO do.</p>
<p>I would advise against going into a Ph.D. program to get a job indirectly related to the field. You might be better served but just getting a masters degree and in one or the other. I would choose Economics over Public Policy (in either getting a masters or a Ph.D.) because graduate level economics courses will give you a stronger quantitative background to analyze the workings of an organization. Also, if you're interested in analyzing the finances of a project then economics will do a better job of preparing you than public policy would. Moreover, if you get a masters in Economics you'll have more opportunities in the private sector as well. (In the event that you someday decide to leave international development).</p>
<p>Given that you're not entirely sure what you want to do, a masters is probably the best route.</p>
<p>Getting a PhD in order to pursue a career in ID is fairly useless, as far as I can tell.</p>
<p>Yeah seriously. You will have roughly the same options with both. The difference is, one of those qualifications will take 1 year, and the other will most likely take between 5 and 7 years.</p>
<p>Okay, so I did some more research.</p>
<p>First, some things that might be relevant: I don't mind going to school for a few more years. In fact, I'd prefer that to working right off the bat -- I don't tend to like working, I tend to prefer school. And it would be nice to jump into some organization at a higher level. If there's a position that I could get with a master's plus a few years' work experience and I could also get it with a PhD and less work experience, I'd rather get it through having a PhD. Also, I worry that if I start working after a master's, I will later on find I need a PhD to break some ceiling, and it would be harder to go back to school then. There might only be a chance of that happening, but it worries me and I have to take it into consideration.</p>
<p>Now, I looked on devnetjobs.org and JOE. Most of the jobs on both weren't interesting to me. Some that were (based on job title):</p>
<p>devnetjobs.org:
Research Officer, Institute of Development Studies (except preferably eventually at some higher level, and then as I say if it were possible to jump in at a higher level with a PhD I'd rather do that)
Senior Development Research Officer, International Rescue Committee
International Consultant, UNDP
Policy Advisor, Inter-American Development Bank</p>
<p>JOE:
IFPRI
International Finance Corporation
World Bank
EPA
Economic Policy Institute
Research Fellow, Inter-American Development Bank</p>
<p>I'd also be interested in being an Economist, for any international development organization except the government or a small NGO.</p>
<p>But what I'm mainly interested in is policy. Especially economic policy as it relates to international development. I can't be a politician, and I'm not interested in working for some grassroots advocacy organization manning phones, but presumably there are a few other ways I could have an impact on policy.</p>
<p>(If anyone can suggest some other ways, chime in here.)</p>
<p>I'm not sure that looking at jobs like this is the best way to go about making a decision, though. Looking at JOE is clearly biased toward getting an Economics PhD, and I don't know of any similar kind of list for Public Policy PhD jobs. devnetjobs.org is flooded with project officer type positions which are anathema, and I get the feeling the others on there are also thus at least somewhat similar (e.g. upon closer inspection, the Policy Advisor role for the IADB advertized there also sounds like it is based on the organization's inner workings -- it deals with analysis of internal policies -- rather than public policy).</p>
<p>So I still don't know what to do but here is more information.</p>
<p>Any more thoughts? bump</p>
<p>If you're aiming for *massively *competitive jobs like those then the brand name of your degree will matter far more than whether you studied economic theory or economic policy.</p>
<p>Oh, okay. So, uh, policy or economics doesn't matter? (Focusing on economics within a policy program, versus just going for economics, I mean.)</p>
<p>If you are completely neutral then go with the economics degree. It will open more doors. Also, do not get a Ph.D. just to secure job positions. You can get into high level positions by working your way up and without going through the rigors of a Ph.D. program.</p>