Code for "Early Career Paths of Economists Inside and Outside of Academia"

Economics job candidates face considerable professional
and financial uncertainties when deciding between academic and nonacademic career
paths. Using novel panel data, we provide a broad picture of PhD economists’ early
career mobility and earnings growth – both in and outside of academia. We find
that academic jobs have fallen to just over half of US placements, with growing
shares in tech, consulting, and government. We document considerable early
career job mobility and higher earnings growth among job changers,
private-sector economists, and men. We also find an earnings premium for graduates
of top-ranked PhD programs that grows over early career years in academia while
shrinking in the private sector. These different earnings dynamics mean the opportunity
cost (in terms of potential earnings) of remaining in academia is generally less
for graduates of top-ranked programs, although there is significant dispersion
in mid-career earnings among these academics.