The Labor Market for New Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics Ph.D.s
Working Paper No. 05-W04
Wendy A. Stock and John J. Siegfried
ABSTRACT [article]
This paper describes the characteristics and labor market
experiences of new agricultural and natural resource (ANR) economics Ph.D.s, based on surveys
of graduates in 1996-97 and 2001-02. An average of 185 new Ph.D.s in ANR economics were
awarded in each of these years. Among these, an average of 27 percent were
earned by women, and 36 percent were earned by U.S. citizens. The median graduate
took 5.2 years to earn the Ph.D. Ninety-five percent of the graduates were
employed. About half of the jobs were in academe, with the remainder divided roughly equally among government, international or research organizations, and business,
industry, and consulting. The median salary of new ANR economics Ph.D.s holding
full-time jobs in the U.S. was $62,500 in 2002, up from $47,500 five years
earlier. Ninety-one percent of the respondents reported that they like their job fairly well. Those who do less research and more service are more likely to be dissatisfied with their
jobs. Overall, 85 percent of the new ANR economics Ph.D.s reported that had they known at matriculation what they know after graduation, they still would have pursued a Ph.D.
Keywords and Phrases: Agricultural and natural resource economists, market for
agricultural economists, salaries of agricultural economists
JEL Classification Number: A11