Predoctoral RAships have historically been seen as good bridges for applicants from LACs or non-econ backgrounds who wouldn't have the research/LORs to get into good programs directly after undergrad. But are they becoming more broadly pursued, including by people who could plan well and do a math/econ double major from a good undergrad? I've heard (very apocryphally) that more than 40% of Harvard's incoming class this year has predoctoral research.
I've been considering not even applying for PhD programs my senior year and purely applying to RAships, as well as orienting in other ways. For example, substituting more math/econ with stats/programming, with the understanding that stats/programming will help get an RAship and most RAships will allow me to take more math/econ. I was wondering if this is becoming a more common approach.