New Ph.D Hires in Economics: Expected and Actual Offers for the 2010-11 Academic Year

Last month Arkansas University published a survey on the labor market for new Ph.D hires in economics 2011 – 2012. The survey, which was featured in Greg Mankiw’s Blog, offered a comprehensive overview of expected and real salaries for new PH.D. hires, based on a questionnaire response from 191 US academic institutions.

According to the responses from 90 institutions, the average expected salary in 2011-2012 is $89,155, which is 1.8 % more than an actual offer in 2010-11. The average expected offer by Ph.D. degree granting institutions is $99,269 and $115,000 by Top 30 institutions, whereas an average expected offer by Bachelor and Master degree granting institutions is $74,520.

Based on data from the survey from last year, “ … all doctoral degree granting programs made actual offers 1.6 percent below what was expected, Top 30 institutions made actual offers 4.0 percent above what was expected, and the actual offers of Master and Bachelor degree granting schools were 2.0 percent below average expected values. For all 109 respondents, the average actual offer was below the average expected offer.”

Additional Support

Some of the institutions that participated in the survey offer additional support to their candidates, often including relocation allowances (90.8 %), housing allowances (7.8 %), TIAA-CREF retirement plan (88.3 %), full vesting (58.3 %), or no-cost life insurance (72.2%).

Source: Graphs are based on Survey of the labor market for new PH.D. hires in economics 2011 – 12, Sam M. Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas