Market Structure in the Production of Economics Ph. D.'s

A century ago economics began to develop as a separate and significant part of the curriculum in American colleges and universities. Along with increased popularity and enrollment came the need for faculty specifically trained in economics. A number of American scholars turned to Europe, Germany in particular, for their training, and brought the German Ph.D. back as a model for graduate education. The first economics Ph.D.'s earned in this country were awarded by Harvard (1875), Yale (1877), and Johns Hopkins (1878).1 These first Ph.D.'s were two-year degrees. By 1900 economists had generally upgraded the Ph.D. to three years beyond the baccalaureate degree, consisting of two years of course work and another year for the dissertation. Graduate classes were taught in seminar format with considerable interaction between professors and students. As the production process matured, dissertations became longer, more sophisticated and more specialized, i.e., they were no longer the mark of a cultured gentleman but the demonstration of a professional skill [15, 11]. The newly formed American Economic Association began to keep track of doctoral candidates in economics in 1904 [6]. In 1904 there were 8 institutions which reported having men working on Ph.D.'s, and by 1928 that number had increased to 27.2 While the American Economic Association did not tabulate the output of completed Ph.D.'s, the National Research Council has compiled a database containing the number of Ph.D.'s by institution by year since 1920. Their Survey of Earned Doctorates indicates that 22 Ph.D.'s were awarded in economics by 6 different universities in 1920. By 1992 that number had grown to 910 Ph.D.'s from 123 different institutions.