Research on the Economics Job Market and Economists' Salaries

There are several sources of current salary and job market information for economists:

The Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Arkansas conducts an annual "Survey of the Labor Market for New Ph.D. Hires in Economics"
The American Economic Association publishes results of its Universal Academic Questionnaire in each May issue of the American Economic Review.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes information on economists in the Occupational Outlook Handbook.

Job Market Research

Auerbach, Alan J., Francine D. Blau, and John B. Shoven. 2004. "The Labor Market for New Ph.D. Economists: Panel Discussion." American Economic Review, 94 (2), pp. 286-290.

Barbezat, Debra A. 1992. "The Market for New Ph.D. Economists." Journal of Economic Education, 23 (3), pp. 262-276.

Bratsberg, Bernt, James F. Ragan, and John T. Warren. 2010. "Does Raiding Explain the Negative Returns to Faculty Seniority." Economic Inquiry, 48 (3), pp. 704-721.

Cawley, John. "A Guide (and Advice) for Economists on the U.S. Junior Academic Job Market", JOE, September 2003.

Cawley, John and Michael A. Morrisey. 2007. "The Earnings of U.S. Health Economists." Journal of Health Economics, 26 (2), pp. 358-372.

Colander, David. 2005. "What Economists Teach and What Economists Do." Journal of Economic Education 36 (3), pp. 249-260.

Collins, Jeffery T., Richard G. Cox, and Victor Stango. 2000. "The Publishing Patterns of Recent Economics Ph.D.-Recipients." Economic Inquiry, 38 (2), pp. 358-367.

Coupe, Tom. 2004. "What Do We Know About Ourselves? On the Economics of Economics." KYKLOS, 57 (2), pp. 197-215.

Cruz-Castro, Laura and Luis Sanz-Menendez. 2005. "The Employment of Ph.D.s in Firms: Trajectories, Mobility, and Innovation." Research Evaluation, 14 (1), pp. 57-69.

Duncan, Kevin, Dirk Yandell, and Kokila Doshi. 2000. "Job Search Strategies and Outcomes for Academic Economists: A Middle-Market View." Eastern Economic Journal, 26 (3), pp, 345-361.

Ehrenberg, Roger G. 2003. "Studying Ourselves: The Academic Labor Market: Presidential Address to the Society of Labor Economists, Baltimore, May 3, 2002." Journal of Labor Economics, 21 (2), pp. 267-287.

Ehrenberg, Roger G. 2004. "Prospects in the Academic Labor Market for Economists." Journal of Economic Perspectives, 18 (2), pp. 227-238.

Ehrenberg, Ronald G. 1999. "The Changing Distributions of New Ph.D. Economists and Their Employment: Implications for the Future." The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 13 (3), pp. 135-138.

Fox, Kevin J. 1999. "What Determines Research Output of Academic Economists?" Economic Record, 75 (230), pp. 256-267.

Freeman, Richard B. 1999. "It's Better Being an Economist (But Don't Tell Anyone)." The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 13 (3), pp. 139-145.

Gallet, Craig A., John A. List, and Peter F. Orazem. 2005. "Cyclicality and the Labor Market for Economists." Southern Economic Journal, 72 (2), pp. 284-304.

Golden, Bill B., Leah J Tsoodle, Oluwarotimi O. Odeh, and Allen M Featherstone. 2006. "Determinants of Agricultural Economic Faculty Salaries: A Quarter of a Century Later." Review of Agricultural Economics, 28 (2), pp. 254-261.

Hansen, W. Lee. 1999. "The Link from Graduate Education in Economics to the Labor Market," Journal of Economic Perspectives, 13 (3), pp. 147-151.

Hilmer, Christiana E and Michael J. Hilmer. 2007. "Women Helping Women, Men Helping Women? Same-Gender Mentoring, Initial Job Placements and Early Career Publishing Success for Economics PhDs." American Economic Review, 97(2), pp. 422-426.

Hilmer, Michael J. and Christiana E. Hilmer. 2007. "Dissertation Advisors and Initial Job Placements for Economics Ph.D. Recipients." Applied Economics Letters, 14 (4-6), pp. 311-314.

Hilmer, Michael J. and Christiana E. Hilmer. 2009. "Fishes, Ponds, and Productivity: Student-advisor Matching and Early Career Publishing Success for Economics PhDs" Economics Inquiry, 47 (2), pp. 290-303.

Holmes, Jessica and David Colander. 2007. "The Hiring of an Economist: A Case Study." American Economist, 51 (1), pp. 54-62.

Kahn, Lisa B. 2010. "The Long-Term Labor Market Consequences of Graduating from College in a Bad Economy." Labour Economics,17 (2), pp. 303-16.

Krueger, Alan B. and Stephen Wu. 2000. "Forecasting Job Placements of Economics Graduate Students." Journal of Economic Education, 31 (1), pp. 81-94.

Krueger, Anne O. 1999. "Implications of the Labor Market for Graduate Education in Economics." Journal of Economic Perspectives, 13 (3), pp. 153-156.

Liner, Gaines H. and Ellen Sewell. 2009. "Research Requirements for Promotion and Tenure at PhD Granting Departments of Economics." Applied Economics Letters, 16 (7-9), pp. 765-68.

List, John A. 2000. "Interview Scheduling Strategies for New Ph.D.-Economists." Journal of Economic Education, 31 (2), pp. 191-201.

Mangematin, V. 2000. "Ph.D. Job Market: Professional Trajectories and Incentives during the Ph.D." Research Policy, 29 (6), pp. 741-756.

Moore, William J., Robert J. Newman and Dek Terrell. 2007. "Academic Pay in the United Kingdom and the United States: The differential Returns to Productivity and the Lifetime Earnings Gap." Southern Economic Journal, 73 (3), pp. 717-732.

Norwood, F. Bailey and Shida R. Henneberry. 2006. "Show Me the Money! The Value of College Graduate Attributes as Expressed by Employers and Perceived by Students." American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 88 (2), pp. 484-498.

O'Neill, June and Nachum Sicherman. 1997. "Earning Patterns and Changes in Economics and Other Sciences." Eastern Economics Journal, 23 (4), pp. 395-409.

Oyer, Paul. 2006. "Initial Labor Market Conditions and Long-Term Outcomes for Economists." Journal of Economic Perspectives, 20(3), pp. 143-160.

Oyer, Paul. 2008. "Ability and Employer Learning: Evidence from the Economist Labor Market." Journal of Japanese and International Economies, 22 (2), pp. 268-289.

Rupp, Nicholas G. 2002. "The Publication Patterns of the Elite Economics Departments: 1995-2000." Eastern Economic Journal, 28 (4), pp. 523-538.

Siegfried, John J. and Wendy A. Stock. 1999. "The Labor Market for New Ph.D. Economists." Journal of Economic Perspectives, 13 (3), pp. 115-134.

Siegfried, John J. and Wendy A. Stock. 2004. "The Market for New Ph.D. Economists in 2002." American Economic Review, 94 (2), pp. 272-285.

Smeets, Valerie, Frederic Warzynski, and Tom Coupe. 2006. "Does the Academic Labor Market Initially Allocate New Graduates Efficiently?" Journal of Economic Perspectives, 20(3), pp. 161-172.

Stock, Wendy A. and John J. Siegfried. 2006. "The Labor Market for New Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics Ph.D.s." Review of Agricultural Economics, 28 (1), pp. 147-163.

Stock, Wendy A. and Richard M. Alston. 2000. "The Effect of Graduate-Program Rank on Success in the Job Market." Journal of Economic Education, 31 (4), pp. 389-401.

Salary Research

Barbezat, Debra A. 2004. "Revisiting the Seniority Wage Effect for Faculty." Economics Letters, 82 (2), pp. 289-294.

Barkley, Andrew P., Wendy A. Stock, and Cynthia K. Sylvius. 1999. "Agricultural Graduate Earnings: The Impact of College, Career, and Gender." American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 81 (4), pp. 785-800.

Becker, William E. 1999. "Turning Merit Scores into Salaries." Journal of Economic Education, 30 (4), pp. 420-426.

Bratsberg, Bernt, James F. Ragan, and John T. Warren. 2003. "Negative Returns to Seniority: New Evidence in Academic Markets." Industrial & Labor Relations Review, 56 (2), pp. 306-323.

Ehrenberg, Roger G., Paul J. Pieper, and Rachel A. Willis. 1998. "Do Economics Departments with Lower Tenure Probabilities Pay Higher Faculty Salaries?" Review of Economics and Statistics, 80 (4), pp. 503-512.

Fromby, John P. and Gary A. Hoover. 2002. "Salary Determinants of Entry-Level Academic Economists and the Characteristics of Those Hired on the Tenure Track." Eastern Economic Journal, 28 (4), pp. 509-522.

Hilmer, Christiana E. and Michael J. Hilmer. 2005. "How Do Journal Quality, Co-authorship, and Author Order Affect Agricultural Economists' Salaries?" American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 87 (2), pp. 509-523.

Ragan, James F., Jr., John T. Warren, and Bernt Bratsberg. 1999. "How Similar Are Pay Structures in "Similar" Departments of Economics?" Economics of Education Review, 18 (3), pp. 347-360.

Stock, Wendy A. and John J. Siegfried. 2001. "So You Want to Earn a Ph.D. in Economics: How Much Do You Think You'll Make?" Economic Inquiry, 39 (2), pp. 320-335.