Economic Research?

I am also interested in this.

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( try a google UBS search, i recall seeing something in macro research, could be wrong)

I had an offer a few years ago. The Chief Economist had an Econ PhD and was a direct Hong Kong hire, and the interviewer was a former Indian Finance Ministry senior official with a PhD from a top place as well. So the entry-level/short experience job seemed pointless if not for my CV but also for my experience itself unless I was sure I could lateral to market-oriented places if it were for the money. Obviously this is difficult to do since laterals are only possible conditional on your previous experience, especially if you're aiming for managerial level. Although I've heard that hedge fund buyside is enthusiastic of people from such economic research desks, the country I'm from doesn't have a huge presence of macro hedge funds to choose from.

So I just decided to get some substantive research experience while remaining at the bank and fudged my way into a top 5 UK economics masters program and also got an interview for INSEAD all despite my awful GPA. I instinctively chose the former. My parents were more enthusiastic of me continuing academics instead of business.

Conclusion ; if you have a good enough aptitude for economics and writing -- you need to be decent at both -- you should do economic consulting or economic research at investment banks. Central banks and government are for the truly talented, and the best stay in academia, but right below that level you can do regressions at the investment banks. Keep in mind that you will inevitably need at least a European Research Masters(I doubt the US terminal masters would be sufficient) to climb the ladder and look to become at least a managing director. The Executives usually are really big names from academia(Stephen Roach) or did their PhD at the top places(Mark Carney, Jan Hatzius). One can do the job with an MBA but must be backed up by substantive research ability since it's not a market oriented job, although I've been told you do sell your research to other institutions.

There are almost no graduate macro research position. BB hire mainly senior economists. Macro research has a small budget as it is always considered in the "package" and is never really "demanded" as opposed to the coverage of certain stocks.