Expanding Opportunities: New Facts about the Placement of PhD Economists
https://docs.iza.org/dp18868.pdf
Abstract
Is the top of the economics profession becoming more insular? We study the placement of top PhD graduates over the past quarter-century matching them to their advisors. Three trends point towards greater openness: graduates increasingly place outside academia, outside the US, and into a tech sector recruiting broadly across gender, ethnicity, and program prestige. The disaggregated picture is less reassuring: the Emerging South is largely sidelined in the global job market, East Asians face persistent gaps in top academic placement, and elite advisors continue to confer substantial advantages within academia. Tech placement, meanwhile, is dominated by a single employer.
https://docs.iza.org/dp18868.pdf
Abstract
Is the top of the economics profession becoming more insular? We study the placement of top PhD graduates over the past quarter-century matching them to their advisors. Three trends point towards greater openness: graduates increasingly place outside academia, outside the US, and into a tech sector recruiting broadly across gender, ethnicity, and program prestige. The disaggregated picture is less reassuring: the Emerging South is largely sidelined in the global job market, East Asians face persistent gaps in top academic placement, and elite advisors continue to confer substantial advantages within academia. Tech placement, meanwhile, is dominated by a single employer.
Economists Are Studying the Slowing Job Market – and Feeling It Themselves
https://www.wsj.com/economy/jobs/economists-job-market-hiring-2213807b
Newly minted Ph.Ds. tend to work for universities, government agencies and big white-collar companies. It’s not a great hiring time for any of them.
https://www.wsj.com/economy/jobs/economists-job-market-hiring-2213807b
Newly minted Ph.Ds. tend to work for universities, government agencies and big white-collar companies. It’s not a great hiring time for any of them.
The Bull Market for Economists Is Over. It’s an Ominous Sign for the Economy.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/business/economics-jobs-hiring.html
Earning a Ph.D. in economics has long been a reliable path to affluence and prestige. Not anymore.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/business/economics-jobs-hiring.html
Earning a Ph.D. in economics has long been a reliable path to affluence and prestige. Not anymore.
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