All Rights Reserved
AccessEcon LLC 2006, 2008.
Powered by MinhViet JSC

 
Garrison Schlauch and Richard Startz
 
''The path to an economics PhD''
( 2018, Vol. 38 No.4 )
 
 
We examine the pre-graduate school characteristics of PhD candidates graduating from the top 50 American economics programs. Among candidates from American undergraduate institutions, we find that those who are male, have undergraduate honors, hold an undergraduate major or minor in math and come from highly ranked undergraduate institutions are more likely to graduate from from highly ranked PhD programs. They are more likely to have research assistant experience and less likely to have a graduate degree between completing their undergraduate studies and beginning their PhD (unlike international candidates). In the top five PhD programs, nearly 60% of Americans entered with post-undergraduate research assistant experience while 10% of Americans and 75% of international students entered with a graduate degree. Finally, American candidates from liberal arts colleges or unranked undergraduate institutions graduate from lower ranked PhD programs than those from national universities, i.e. non-liberal arts, non-regional, ranked universities.
 
 
Keywords: economics PhD
JEL: A2 - Economics Education and Teaching of Economics: General
I2 - Education: General
 
Manuscript Received : Jun 21 2018 Manuscript Accepted : Oct 17 2018

  This abstract has been downloaded 1034 times                The Full PDF of this paper has been downloaded 166210 times