Earnings of health economists

March 3, 2007 in Economics - General | Permalink

How much money do health economists make? Using a 2005 survey of about 1500 members of the International Health Economics Association (iHEA), Cawley and Morrisey (2007) attempt to answer this question in a paper release this month in the Journal of Health Economics.

For academic careers, the study finds the following mean earnings figures:

  Econ Ph.Ds Other doctoral degrees
  9 mo. 12 mo. 9 mo. 12 mo.
Assistant Prof 82,315 84,100 94,116 91,777
Associate Prof 91,847 108,428 - 96,167
Professor 150,645 171,357 105,000 135,600
         

The authors also compare their findings with those of other studies:

    Assist. Prof Assoc. Prof Professor
CM Econ Dept 81,367 88,692 137,789
AEA Econ Dept 71,112 79,806 101,652
CM Business School 110,561 - 135,305
AACSB Business School 73,924 78,576 107,732
CM School of Pub. Health 77,588 102,167 151,653
ASPH School of Pub. Health 77,439 97,387 136,576
       

CM stands for Cawley Morrisey; AEA stands for the American Economic Association Universal Academic questionnaire; AACSB stands for the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business; and ASPH stands for the Association of School of Public Health.  The study also finds that 82% of health economists earn some consulting income (e.g.: book royalties, witness fees, etc.).  The mean consulting income is about $17,000, but this distribution is right-skewed so the median is only $6000.

Finally, the authors look at job offers for recent Economics PhD graduates who specialize in health care.

  9 mo. 12 mo.
Arts and Sciences 74,261 78,333
Business School 79,700 128,333
Public Health 65,100 77,793
Medicine - 80,181
Government - 72,621
Not-for-profit - 79,444
For-profit - 86,667