Can you earn a Ph.D. in economics in five years?

Abstract

We investigate graduate school outcomes for students who entered economics Ph.D. programs in fall 2002. Students in Top-15 ranked programs and those with higher verbal and quantitative GRE scores are less likely to have dropped out, but no more likely to have graduated. Those with undergraduate degrees from Top-60 U.S. liberal arts colleges and from foreign universities have lower attrition and higher completion probabilities. There are important differences in the characteristics associated with retention and completion probabilities between U.S. citizens and non-citizens and between men and women.