Advice for young economists

Here is a collection of advice for economists at various career stages. There are some more links on my web page - look towards the bottom.

I have one other bit of advice that is on my mind. It concerns going on the market in the years between taking a job and getting tenure.

Suppose you get a "nibble" from another school in your first two or three years as a professor. What should you do? I think you should decline as a matter of course. First of all, suppose you go and give a job talk and then either do not get an offer or decide not to take it. What signal have you sent to the senior faculty at your current school? You have sent a signal to them that you are not committed to the place, something that strongly reduces their incentive to invest in you. You really want your senior colleagues to invest in you. If you end up taking the job, then what have you accomplished? A move costs about one paper in terms of time and energy. You throw away all the institution-specific human capital you have built up. You may end up wasting course preps as well. Plus you can get a reputation as someone who is fickle, as someone who moves quickly or cannot make a commitment or both. While superstars can survive that reputation, ordinary mortals will typically pay a cost for it later in their careers.

I can see looking around at year four or five at a place if you are in a position to move up or to make a better match on other dimensions. Even here, though, I think it makes more sense to move at tenure time (if you are going to get it and are moving up or sideways) or just before tenure (if it is clear you are not going to get it). In the latter case, there may be hard choices between moving down (and getting tenure) or moving in parallel (and getting a new clock). Whenever you move, remember to take the high road and, if possible, leave your initial position with gratitude and good feelings. Academic economics is a very small world indeed and you are in a repeated game with everyone involved with it. Good behavior yields a high payoff.

Looking at it from the other side, I think it is very bad behavior for departments to go after students in their first or second year of a job if they have not first received a signal of interest from the person involved. Junior faculty at that point in their careers are usually nervous and overworked. They are also inexperienced at the post-phd job market. The last thing they need is the additional stress and distraction of dealing with unsolicited outside attention. The profession as a whole has an interest in the success of our best young minds; departments that ignore this in their recruiting efforts are creating a public bad.

Hat tip: Marginal Revolution