The Doctoral Origins of Economics Faculty and the Education of New Economics Doctorates

Abstract

It is recognized that economists are profoundly influenced by the school where they received their graduate training. The Commission on Graduate Education in Economics commented that "What economists do is what they are trained to do in their graduate programs" (Hansen 1991, 1054). Because part of what economists do is train new economists, they will train their graduate students in a way similar to how they were trained. Thus, a school's influence in the profession is not limited to its own graduates but will extend to the graduates trained by its graduates. Although determining the number of graduates per school is straightforward, little is known about the academic origins of the faculty who are training new doctorates. The purpose of this article is to quantify this "second-generation" influence of graduate programs. Besides satisfying what Colander (1989, 137) has called the economist's "prurient and professional interest," this study will provide a measure of the relative influence of different schools. In addition, our measures will be one gauge of the effectiveness of different graduate programs.