Economists

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Bright young Economists

January 21, 2009 in Economics - General | No comments

The Economist magazine has a listing of the eight up-and-coming economists.  Below is a list of their names and some commentary if applicable.

  • Amy Finkelstein.  Dr. Finkelstein researches in the public and health economics fields.  I have featured here work multiple times on this blog (see here, here, here, here and here).
  • Jesse Shapiro.  I met Dr. Shapiro at an IHS conference last spring and have been very impressed with his work.  Some of Dr. Shapiro’s research findings include: harsher jail conditions do nothing to deter prisoners from reoffending and that preschoolers who watch television do better academically than children who don’t.
  • Esther Duflo.  Dr. Duflo is a well known development economist whose work involves randomized interventions. For instance, she found that giving away 1 kg of daal (lentils) when parents take their kids to be immunized greatly improved immunization rates compared to the control group not given the daal.
  • Roland Fryer – Social Economics, the Economics of Affirmative Action/Racism.
  • Raj Chetty – Public Economics, Taxation.
  • Iván Werning – Macroeconomics.
  • Xavier Gabaix – Behavioral Economics, Asset pricing.
  • Marc Melitz – Trade Economics.

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How much money does a professor make?

December 3, 2008 in Economics - General | No comments

The Chronicle of Higher Education has data on 2007-2008 salaries for professors at various ranks (Assistant, Associate, Full Professor) in various departments.  

Professors teaching Law, Business or Engineer were among the highest paid.”Among new assistant professors, those in business had the highest average salary, at $86,640. The three disciplines with the lowest average salaries for full professors were English, visual and performing arts, and parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies, the survey found.”

Salaries also varied by the type of institution.  Professors at Doctoral Institutions made the most, followed by Master’s Institutions.  Professor teaching at two-year colleges had the lowest salaries.

You can also read my posts concerning the earnings of economists and health economists.

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Economists favor Obama

October 3, 2008 in Current Events, Economics - General | Permalink

The Economist magazine took a poll of academic economists working at NBER to see who they would vote for.  Barack Obama came out as the favorite.  Even though 46% of academic economists list themselves as Democrats compared to only 10% who claim to be Republican, Obama came out overwhelmingly ahead.

Seventy percent of economists would rather work for Obama than McCain (compared to 10% for McCain).  Eighty percent of economists believe Obama has a better economic team.

“John McCain has professed disdain for ‘so-called economists’, and for some the feeling has become mutual,” says Erik Brynjolfsson, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management.

  • Note: The Healthcare Economist website has not endoresed either candidate

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Starting Salaries for Academic Economists

July 28, 2008 in Economics - General | Permalink

What is the typical salary of an Economist just after they finish graduate school? This question is of particular interest to me personally, since I am going on the job market this year.

Below are some of the results from the Survey of the Labor Market for New Ph.D. Hires in Economics, from the University of Arkansas School of Business. The data are from new hires in 2006.

Institution Type
PhD Top 30 (PhD) Bachelors/Masters All
Mean Actual Offer $85,565 $95,193 $65,316 $76,649
Mean Expected Offer $84,070 $92,750 $65,520 $74,845
Actual Less Expected $1,495 $2,443 -$204 $1,804
Percent Difference 1.8% 2.6% -0.3% 2.4%

The AEA Paper and Proceeding from also has data on new assistant professors salaries for economists as well.

Institution Type Salary Add’l compensation Teaching Load/yr
PhD $86,078 $30,007 3.3 courses
M.A. $70,026 $10,208 4.6 courses
B.A. $60,087 $13,293 5.6 courses

Additional compensation includes guaranteed summer compensation and signing bonus. It does not include fringe benefits.

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