Date of Award
5-2021
Degree Type
Honors College Thesis
Academic Program
Mathematics BS
Department
Political Science, International Development, and International Affairs
First Advisor
Edward Sayre, Ph.D.
Advisor Department
Political Science, International Development, and International Affairs
Abstract
What are the economic returns to attending a more selective college? This thesis adds to the growing literature on college choices and economic returns by analyzing the effects of graduate school ranking on the annual earnings of economics professors in the United States. In order to answer this question, the author collected an original data set using publicly available salary information from a number of US-based institutions. The data in this paper uses McPherson’s ranking of US Economics Departments, h-index, and other factors collected from the individuals’ CVs to estimate the economic returns. The results from Ordinary Least Squares regression analysis and simultaneous equation modeling indicate that graduate school rankings affect their earnings in conjunction with the current institutions; the higher-ranked the graduate school they attended, the higher their income. Additionally, regardless of their graduate school or current institution, a professor’s research output (as measured by the h-index) is also a significant determinant of their economic returns, which shows that higher productivity is associated with better pay.
Copyright
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Recommended Citation
Manandhar, Shailee, "The Impact of Graduate School Ranking on an Economics Professor’s Annual Earnings" (2021). Honors Theses. 794.
https://aquila.usm.edu/honors_theses/794