<p>I think the classes that you are planning to take should give you enough. This is not my field but I’ve seen it recommended that potential economics students also, perhaps, take differential equations and real analysis. I don’t know how many economics hopefuls actually take those classes, nor do I know how integral they are to econometric analyses. (In my field, the math classes you’ve already planned to take would be enough for quantitative analysis and research. In fact, the ones you plan on taking would be enough to get you into a statistics MA.)</p>
<p>If you are already doing research in your sophomore year you should be fine on that front. Consider doing an REU - I think the NSF website lists some REUs in economics, and other universities sometimes offer summer REUs that aren’t funded by the NSF (and sometimes have other names, like SURF or SROP. Just Google “summer undergrad research economics”).</p>
<p>As I understand it, a PhD in economics offers quite a few options outside of academia. The PhD is, at its core, a research degree that is designed to send students into academic positions as professors. However, because economics doctoral students get so much practical training - usually in quantitative analysis, methodological design and sometimes policy analysis - they can often go on to very lucrative careers working for corporate firms (finance, banking, hedge fund managing, etc), nonprofits and NGOs (think big think tanks like RAND and Cato, as well as NGOs like the World Bank and IMF), and the federal government as economists (the federal government has about 15-20 open economist positions right now).</p>
<p>But, you don’t need a PhD to do any of the non-academic things I listed. Sometimes they’re preferred, but often you can get a lucrative economist position with an MA in economics and some experience putting together models/doing some research for a professor in grad school, or an internship. A good number of the federal positions I looked at were GS-7 or GS-9, which means they’re looking for bachelor’s and master’s educated folks. If you don’t want to be a professor, and what you really want is to do economic analysis at some non-academic firm, then I think an MA will probably be sufficient. At the very least, I think you should get an MA first and then aim to work for a few years; you can always decide to go back later. (It’s theoretically true that you could begin a PhD program and leave with a free-to-you MA after 2-3 years if you decide not to finish, but in practice it can be very difficult to leave a PhD program.)</p>
<p>Update: Someone on the CS&S just posted this link to Berkeley’s econ PhD program:</p>
<p><a href=“Preparation | Department of Economics”>Preparation | Department of Economics;
<p>They do indeed want to see potential applicants having taken diff-eq and real analysis. I’m assuming that this is going to be standard across all top programs, as Berkeley’s is one of the best. So if you really want to be competitive for top PhD programs you probably need to find the time to squeeze the classes in there.</p>
<p>Also, I forgot to answer your first question. Off the top of my head, I don’t know of any formal programs that combine poli sci and econ. I argue, however, that you actually don’t need one. What you really need is a PhD program in either that gives you the flexibility to take coursework in both departments, and perhaps work with an adviser from each department. Many (most?) doctoral programs are pretty amenable to students combining multidisciplinary research interests. You choose your primary department based on the approach you want to take (and which degree you think is more employable. I’d say it’s definitely econ in this case) and then you take classes in the other one and perhaps join a professor on some projects. You may also find that in some departments professors may be jointly appointed to econ and poli sci, or that an econ professor may do very PS-oriented research or vice versa.</p>