Will a letter from b-school prof hurt in econ phd application?

[pkukitty]

Right now, I already have 3 letter of reference lined up, all from econ profs, two of them I have been RAing for. But I have also been working as a RA for a marketing prof. And I am thinking about whether I should have his letter as a fourth.

The marketing prof is a PHD form a top 10-15ish Econ program. But he works in b-schools since graduate. He is kinda of a big name in Quant Marketing(industrail orgnasation,modeling) .

Will his letter be useful?

[Golden Rule]

The question to ask is whether this person can credible in convincing a committee that you'll be capable of completing a graduate program. Giving the info you've provided, the answer seems to be yes.

Someone who uses empirical IO methods in a business school is certainly not too far off from a pure econ curriculum, particularly if you want to go into empirical IO.

[Gecko]

Not to mention - he may still have his connections from his alma mater.

[Golden Rule]

Or elsewhere. It's not like b-school profs operate in a vacuum. I'd expect this prof goes to conferences with the opportunity to interact with IO profs from straight econ depts.