Time-to-Degree for the Economics Ph.D. Class of 2001–2002

Based on the median salary for full-time jobs held by new Ph.D. economists in the United States, a rough estimate of the opportunity cost of taking an additional year to earn an economics Ph.D. was $74,000 in 2002. The median time required to earn a Ph.D. for the class of 2002 was 5.5 years, up from 5.25 years for the class of 1997. If the three-month difference is interpreted as 200 students (i.e., roughly onequarter of the class of 2002) taking a year longer to complete their degrees and get a job than did their counterparts from the class of 1997, it implies an increase from 1997 to 2002 in the annual opportunity cost of producing Ph.D. economists exceeding $14.5 million. A growing elapsed time required to earn a Ph.D. also may affect application and matriculation decisions of students who are weighing alternative careers (T. Aldrich Finegan et al., 2006). We examine the time required to earn a Ph.D. in economics for those graduating between July 1, 2001, and June 30, 2002, using survey responses from 398 graduates and 121 thesis advisors of nonrespondents among the cohort. The 519 graduates for whom we have information comprise 61 percent of the 850 individuals estimated to have earned a Ph.D. in the United States in 2002 (Siegfried and Stock, 2004). Based on survey responses from the graduates, we examine whether demographic attributes, type of undergraduate training, and type of financial aid are systematically related to either the time required to write a dissertation or to earn a Ph.D. Using a similar earlier survey (Siegfried and Stock, 2001), we also compare time-to-degree across cohorts.