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Study Law or Economics?

Economics degree is a better choice when selecting law school vs. economics degree. Economics degree combined with sufficient quantitative skills is likely to offer a greater variety of career options than law school. Law degree (Juris Doctor) is a professional degree  which can yield different benefits to graduate than undergraduate economics major but initial career options are mostly limited to law. 

In short, the choice between law or economics depends on your natural or developed abilities. Are you good at math or can learn it well? Do you enjoy performing challenging but straightforward mathematical and statistical calculations on daily basis to figure out trends? Then economics may be a good choice for you.

Or, if you enjoy daily reading of complicated and convoluted laws and regulations, trying to figure out their meaning by decipher endless legal opinions written by courts? And do you enjoy constantly putting down fires by solving legal problems of your clients and often dealing with sleazy unethical lawyers on the opposing side?

Are you really thick skin, “do not give a ….” person? And hate complicated math? Than you may be better off becoming a lawyer. Lot’s of cursing in legal career – trust me. Please note, career as a lawyer has little to do with justice and more to do with trying to pursuing money as a lawyer. 

Studying economics is different from studying business in general. In my previous article law school vs MBA, I kind of tended to imply that enrolling in law school may be a better idea than going for an MBA. With economics this may be somewhat different and here is why. Economics is a more specific major than MBA, and prospects are different and narrower because it offers a set of very specific skills.

This article applies to undergraduate and graduate economics degrees in analysis study law vs. economics choice.

All you need to do is to go to Indeed.com or other major job search site and enter “economics” then “JD” or “Juris Doctor” or “Attorney.” You will see more demand for law. But do not jump to quick conclusions yet about law school.

As usual, an economics graduate from the top 10-25 business school or similar probably has better job prospects than law school graduates who graduated from any law school below the top 50. Law school rankings matter a lot, and so do business school rankings.

Economics majors must study advanced heavy math, and that is always good in my opinion. At least, it is easier for a math-savvy person to switch to other quantitative careers than just for a law student who pretty much only knows how to read and write advanced legal material.

Still, law school is specialized in law, and upon passing the bar exam (if the student passes it), a student becomes an attorney often confined to a certain state for several years.  An economics major graduate is not confined and does not have to take any special exams to start working.

So, study law or study economics?

Some people get an economics major and then go to law school. It can be done. At least law school gives law student a professional degree which can be applied later on. Economics major graduating from any college beyond the top 25-30 is probably is not necessarily a bad deal because of gained quantitative skills. But if a student can obtain an economics degree from only a non-top college then the best to do it for low annual tuition – less than 10k-15k in annual tuition.

A math-oriented economics major is likely to switch to another career anyway and become either financial or business analyst, actuary, accountant, or even programmer. Law school grads, frankly, have a more difficult time switching their careers for many reasons including the stigma surrounding lawyers. Employers sometimes simply stay away from law majors and resume with law school in it may go to the trash can for the sake of being safe vs. sorry later.

Economics majors who want to work as economists will probably have to go for their PhDs. On the other hand, Economics major getting an MBA, later on, seems to have better job prospects than economics major with a Ph.D. in economics. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/life-physical-and-social-science/economists.htm

On the other hand, lawyers to my surprise and surprise of other blog writers seem to have slightly better prospects than economics majors if we look narrowly only at the number of specifically economics jobs after graduation https://www.bls.gov/ooh/legal/lawyers.htm

If this is true, then you have your answer. Still, I think that economics degree is more flexible when it comes to switching careers than a law degree, but law degree from law school is better for those who want to stay in the legal field of choosing without switching careers in the future.

It look like law school vs. economics degree choice may lead to better result when one obtains applied economics degree and then applies it in some quantitative position, in contrast to someone just trying to obtain job as economist.

Law School vs Study Economics Differences

Some economics programs in colleges offer pre-law concentration. Not sure about those. If you want to know the law and read the law all day long and write a lot – go to law school. Tax law is an exception. If you want to be an economist and perform a quantitative type of work – go and get an economics degree. Simple as that. I dislike any hybrid programs because I think students waste their time and prospects by losing their focus.

I already mentioned that in law school law students intensively study law subjects – from constitutional law to contracts, and a bunch of law electives. Law school is about the heavy intense reading of large voluminous law materials, making outlines, summarizing legal opinions and then writing crazy law school exams. Core skills – fast reading, writing and memory and a lot of spinning arguments both ways.

Economics major study math quite heavily. Math is math – no spinning is allowed usually. I think math is beautiful. If you hate math – economics is not for you. Unless you want to learn math better.

This is how I would rate programs in terms of how interesting it is to study there:

1. MBA.
2. Law School.
3. Economics.

In terms of having a fun lifestyle outside of college I would rate as follows:

1. Law school lifestyle.
2. MBA lifestyle.
3. Economics lifestyle (What? They have a fun lifestyle??)))

In terms of immediate or distant job prospects from top 25 schools (taking a person without previous experience starting from scratch):

1. Law School.
2. MBA.
3. Economics.

Beyond top 25-50 ability to apply education seems to be as follows (taking a person without previous experience starting from scratch):

1. Law School.
2. Economics (unless switching to a non-economist job).
3. Something else…
4. MBA (especially, beyond the top 100 MBA programs).

Law school degree plus attorney license will land either a job or potential fun hunting own clients. Economics usually benefits from the additional degree – masters or Ph.D. I think law school also is better in helping develop social and life survival skills than economics. At least, people learn how to bullsh*t well.

Law is about fighting other lawyers or government and twisting the applicable facts and law facts to the client’s advantage (I hate that). Economics is more about strict logic, calculation, and observation. In short – law is reading and writing, economics is reading and math. Law gives the possibility to work in law, or some state or local government position. A high salary is not guaranteed beyond the top 25 law schools.

Economics degree gives the option to work in banking, financial sector, actuarial, government, teaching and more as a teacher, analyst, business analyst, marketing analyst, etc. In the long term, it may yield a more stable career. Economics degree is good for finding a number-crunching job and actually may yield a greater variety of job choices than law school.

The largest employer of economics majors is the US government (hint: good benefits plus the student loan repayment and forgiveness programs.) Can you learn to produce huge long economic forecasts involving lots of number crunching to give actual accurate real data? If so, then answer to selection between law school vs. economics degree may be clear for you.

Or, do you want to become law school newcomer, and then go into law and fight daily with other lawyers, read and catch up with constantly changing laws and regulations which may seem to conflict with each other, and twist facts and law in favor of clients on daily basis? The choice is yours to make. I do think economics majors have a good chance for a less stressful career than law school graduates.

As always, in either case, candidates must strive for the best ranking school or program with having to pay (borrow) the least money as possible. If you cannot do cost-benefit analysis regarding choosing college and career in terms of future student debt v. job prospects, then probably it is better not to become an economist (kidding…).

Modern Job Market Trends

Law school newbies often disregard this topic. By the way, the modern trend shows that most analytical jobs will greatly benefit from learning programming languages like python for better employment prospects. Economists are trained to be amazing at data analysis. This is a very trendy topic right now in the world of programming and among large companies. I saw several job ads for python programmers where they ask for an undergraduate degree in statistics or economics.

I also saw job postings for economists where python and SQL/MySql database skills were required. If you study economics, I suggest you also try to find time to learn python and database basics (SQL) – this will make you more employable. There are plenty of data analysis jobs these days and this field is growing fast and huge. The data analysis field is hot. If you are good at math – this may be a good option for you.

I suggest to avoid general economics degree and develop good skills in mathematical economics and/or econometrics you can obtain a stable job in statistics and many other quantitative environments.

Now, economics vs. law salary is very broad topic. You would be better of checking job postings yourself to see the trends. Because in economics vs. law salary research you must keep in mind that law salaries are very individual and specific – there is no really industry standard outside top law firms and government agencies.

For my fellow law students and law graduates – keep getting better in writing. Writing is an excellent and necessary skill for a litigation lawyer and litigation lawyer seems to be a hot job in the legal field. Not the best, and stressful, but at least may land a job. A combination of economics major and law graduate may open a chance to work in government, or such areas of law like tax and trusts and estates law, although I do not recommend mixing apples and oranges in career.

At the same time, there is an over-saturation of lawyers in the United States and globally in general. Law school graduates are facing fewer options and may have more trouble landing satisfying, interesting and financially secure careers. Again, undergraduate or even graduate level economics may yield a better long-term career than law school. Law school vs. economics degree analysis still seem to weight in favor of economics.

Conclusion

Choose economic degree if you are keen on math and want to have stable well-paid stable quant career. Choose law if you are more outgoing and not introvert. And want to spend you career fighting other lawyers within the means of law.

I suggest you go on Indeed and start researching job prospects and job description – requires for each job. I will repeat – with reservations and additional research required, I think economic majors may have a greater variety of job options than law school graduates. And probably less stress.

In choosing between law school and economics program, I tend to favor well-applied economics (vs general economics) degree more than a law school degree. But ultimately, purely for job prospects, I would skip both law and economics and obtain a STEM degree.