AEA/AFA is coming soon next week. According to FiveThirtyEight survey in 2014 from top 17 PhD programs with 308 economics phd candidates, they find that Macro is the top field that most candidates (64, 20.8%) choose as their primary field. Labor ranks second (30, 9.7%) and micro theory (26, 8.4%) is the third.
Then I combine similar fields together and get the following results.
- Applied micro (Labor + IO + Trade + Public (econ+finance)+ Applied + Health + Environment + Education): 30 + 24 + 14 + (12 + 5) + 11 + 9 + 8 + 2= 115 (37.3%)
- Macro + International Econ: 64 + 2 = 66 (21.4%)
- Micro + Game + Decision Theory: 26 + 5 + 3 = 34 (11.0%)
- Financial + Corporate: 24 (7.8%)
- Development: 24 (7.8%)
- Econometrics: 14 (4.5%)
- Behavior + Experimental = 6 + 4 = 10 (3.2%)
- History: 7 (2.3%)
- Unknown field (at least 2 candidates): 14
Now applied micro (covers many different research topics but with similar research approach) is the hot field for economics phd students. Pretty surprised that not too many candidates from top schools choose econometrics as their major fields.
Cover Photo and Statistics: FiveThirtyEight