<p>I'm toward the beginning of the process of applying for econ PhD programs, and would appreciate any information and/or advice on several points.</p>
<p>In terms of my background:
I was a double major in math and political science at a liberal arts college, and came to economics fairly late (took intro macro spring of my sophomore year before a year of off-campus/abroad programs with no econ classes offered). Managed to take intermediate macro/micro and one course in international finance, but that was it. </p>
<p>My math background is much heftier: linear algebra, advanced calc, modern algebra, real analysis, topology, and complex analysis, among others. Not a whole lot of stats, but I did take a course on analysis of variance (regression was only offered the year I was off campus). </p>
<p>For the past two years I've been working as a research assistant in public policy, with exposure to economics but more focus on academic findings than on research itself, though doing some basic modeling as well. Definitely lots of exposure and practice in research, but pretty different from spending two years building/playing on a micro sim or anything like that.</p>
<p>My GPA was close to 4.0, though I'm not sure how heavily that will weigh coming from a liberal arts school (albeit top 25, though not top 10). I did get an 800 Quant on the GRE, but flubbed the analytical section (4.5, ew). (Fwiw, verbal was 700, but my sense is that they don't care much about that.)</p>
<p>So, questions:
I'm most interested in public economics (taxes, specifically). My current list of schools tends towards places with strong public econ programs. But I'm still trying to refine/fill out the bottom half of my list. Are there any places that don't typically make the top 10 lists but are good for tax economics that I should look into?</p>
<p>Similarly, I'm extremely interested in combining tax economics with behavioral economics. But as near as I can tell, there aren't a whole lot of people doing this. There seems to have been quite a bit of research in the last 15 years or so on asymmetric information and taxes, but that's not quite what I'm envisioning (though it's not bad as a first approximation). </p>
<p>So a few related questions. First, is it really the case that there's very little research in this area? Or am I just looking in the wrong places? Second, does anyone know of programs strong in both areas, i.e. good places to go for combining them? Again, particularly with an eye to filling out the list--I'm already applying to the top programs.</p>
<p>Also, I have thought about going for an MSc in economics first, either at LSE or in Canada, but hesitate because of cost. Are there strong reasons why I should/should not do so, given my background?</p>