## Economist Intern Report 2019

## Source details

**Canonical URL:** [Economist Intern Report 2019](https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/oap/oap-home/2019/econ-intern-report-2019.pdf)

## Other formats

- [Markdown version](/-/media/files/oap/oap-home/2019/econ-intern-report-2019.pdf.md)
- [Structured JSON version](/-/media/files/oap/oap-home/2019/econ-intern-report-2019.pdf.json)

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### Recruitment schedule and timeline
- Application Deadline: 6/9
- Interview: 6/16
- Offer: 7/1
- Tedʼs Start: 7/29
- Yamingʼs Start: 8/5
- Tedʼs End: 10/4
- Yamingʼs End: 11/29

### Applicants, background, and motivation
- Yaming Chang
  - From Shenyang, China
  - Jilin University, BA
  - Hitotsubashi University, PhD candidate
  - Major: financial econometrics; interested in international finance
  - Motivation: deepen understanding of IMF work, enrich research experience, and address practical economic issues
  - Prior exposure: participated in the "Macroeconomist Training Program" by the IMF (OAP) in 2018

- Qianmao (Ted) Zhu
  - From Beijing, China
  - Cornell University, BA
  - University of Tokyo, MA candidate
  - Major: Modern Economics
  - Motivation: interest in international cooperation and economic research; desire to experience economist work at the IMF

### Application materials and interview content
- Application requirements
  - CV and responses to specific online questions
  - If invited to interview: transcripts, one recent academic work, and two recommendation letters (OAP contacts referees directly)
  - Applicants should illustrate research interests, reasons for applying, economics knowledge, and research skills

- Interview format and topics
  - Typical interview duration: about 30 minutes
  - Initial behavioral questions for around 10 minutes (self-introduction, CV, past projects, class experience)
  - Analytical questions tailored to project needs; OAP values quantitative analysis ability
  - Example analytical task (Ted): propose an econometric model for Japanʼs tourism including dependent and explanatory variables, regression methods, and data retrieval approaches
  - Example interview topics (Yaming): motivation, econometrics background, recent research paper, variables/models for empirical analysis, and preferred software packages

### Intern project: Japan’s tourism boom
- Two Economist Interns focused on research on Japan’s tourism boom
- Planned dissemination:
  - Publication prospects include an “IMF Selected Issues Paper” early in 2020 and later an “IMF Working Paper”
- Intern contributions to the project
  - Data preparation and cleaning
  - Literature review and model selection guided by data diagnostics
  - Specifying estimation steps and writing STATA code
  - Drawing conclusions from estimation results

### Main tasks and technical work
- Data work
  - Retrieval from specific databases as requested by supervisor
  - Handling incomplete and poorly formatted data requiring cleaning
  - Manual input for data not available online
  - Creation of programming tools and Excel modules using VBA to support data cleaning

- Econometric and programming tasks
  - Estimation and econometric analysis using Stata and EViews
  - Literature review on methods of analysis
  - Writing STATA code for estimation procedures

- Team and workflow
  - Frequent cooperation with team members and supervisors
  - Need to explain ideas clearly and coordinate work within the team

### Skills developed and main takeaways
- Technical and research skills gained
  - Teamwork ability
  - Data mining ability
  - Data processing ability
  - Econometric skills
  - Knowledge about the global economy
  - Presentation and explanation of research thinking

- Practical experience
  - Greater familiarity with macroeconomic data availability
  - Techniques for efficient data handling
  - Broadened econometric knowledge through researching an unfamiliar topic
  - Sense of reward when processed data and regression results are successfully applied

### Advice and recommendations for future applicants
- Prepare strong quantitative skills: programming and math ability are important
- Expect mathematics-related questions in interviews
- English and Japanese ability are valuable: research is conducted in English and Japanese helps locate data
- Communicate clearly with the team about your work and quickly understand team outputs
- Apply if you have strong language skills and a strong economics background; the internship is highly valuable, especially for those doing or considering a PhD in economics

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/oap/oap-home/2019/econ-intern-report-2019.pdf_