Former economic consultant here. Speaking as a lowly analyst with a BA, I got to work with many PhDs in Economics/Finance. Companies are always looking for way

Former economic consultant here. Speaking as a lowly analyst with a BA, I got to work with many PhDs in Economics/Finance. Companies are always looking for ways to back up their economic damages/projections with data provided by a third party aka an economic consulting firm. I got to work on some very cool projects like defending a pricing fixing case in the consumer electronics industry and calculating the number of jobs created if the company injected $35B in the US economy. These reports were not cheap and PhDs could bill ranging from $600 to $1,200 per hour. A 15 min phone call costed $150 to $250 and we billed EVERYTHING. As long as you had a good reputation and played both sides of the fence (Plaintiff/Defense) you always had a job. I could have gone on to get my PhD, but I wanted to dream bigger. It's still a salary job and the hours you put in is what you get out.