Questions about econ consulting and staying for the long haul without PhD

Hi, current sophomore econ/stats major at a target, who just found out about economic consulting and have some questions. I'm more interested in my economics/stats course work over the few finance courses I have taken. 

Most of the discussion around economic consulting on here are the exit opps, or how to get in (gpa>3.5, preferably an honors thesis, statistical programming). Is it not a viable long term career either due to the nature of the work, or the need for a PhD to progress? What about a masters vs MBA? If one got an MBA after several years, what would their comp look like along with the hours? Is remote work an option, or is it still pretty traditional?

As someone who is also interested in traditional clinical trial biostats work which requires masters, definitely pays less but is remote, just trying to learn more about econ consulting to make a decision on what I want to do.

Thanks!