Attrition in Economics Ph.D. Programs

Wendy Stock (), Aldrich Finegan () and John Siegfried
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Wendy Stock: Department of Economics and Agricultural Economics, Montana State University
Aldrich Finegan: Department of Economics, Vanderbilt University

No 608, Vanderbilt University Department of Economics Working Papers from Vanderbilt University Department of Economics

Abstract: Information about 586 individuals who matriculated into 27 economics Ph.D. programs in Fall 2002 is used to estimate first and second year attrition rates. After two years, 26.5 percent of the initial cohort had left, equally divided between the first and second years. Attrition varies widely across individual programs. It is lower among the most highly rated 15 programs, for students with higher verbal and quantitative GRE scores, and for those on a research assistantship. Poor academic performance is the most cited reason for withdrawal. About 15 percent transfer to other economics programs because they are dissatisfied with some aspect of the particular program where they first enrolled.

Keywords: Attrition; dropouts; economics Ph.D. programs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A14 A23 I2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-sog
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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http://www.accessecon.com/pubs/VUECON/vu06-w08.pdf First version, 2006 (application/pdf)

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Journal Article: Attrition in Economics Ph.D. Programs (2006)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:van:wpaper:0608

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