<p>I’m not an economist, by my undergrad economics degree was a good preparation for my career in research. What was most important was that I got a liberal arts degree, really, and I think any discipline or major would have been a good launching pad for what I ended up doing. But economics taught me to frame problems in a certain way, and that’s been useful. </p>
<p>While I was an undergrad I didn’t realize that was happening–I graduated without feeling like I was an economist, or even that I thought like an economist. I felt kind of like a fraud, actually–that the major hadn’t turned me into anything distinct from any other social science grad. But while in grad school my research advisor made me see that I tended to approach problems like an economist would. That was gratifying.</p>