Who gets hired at top departments?

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/papers/twerp_841.pdf

This paper presents descriptive statistis on assistant professors at the top ten US economics departments. I think the most interesting finding is the field breakdown, as the top three fields are macro, econometrics and labor. This is interesting for several reasons. First, theory is not among them, which coincides with the general view that being a theorist is a tough road on the job market these days (but does not coincide with the many "heterodox" economists who criticize establishment economics for being math-obsessed). Second, I suspect that the "labor" designation covers a multitude of sins, including economics of education and health economics and maybe even public finance. It is a bit hard to tell as the authors do not precisely define their amorphous "applied economics" field. Isn't everyone doing empirical work or low-to-middle brow theory an applied economist? Macroeconomics has somewhat the same problem If someone is calibrating general equilibrium models of fertility, are they a macro person or a labor person or some third thing?

Third, why not do the top 25 rather than the top 10? Or, better yet, do the top 150 and then compare hiring at various tiers. It would also be interesting to compare hiring at top departments in the US with those in Canada (probably not very different though maybe more trade?), in the UK, and on the continent. With a larger sample you could also do things like examine whether the gender composition of the existing faculty (or maybe just of current full professors or of the chair) affects the gender mix of assistant professors. A similar exercise could be done by field: are departments hiring to fill in "gaps" or are they building on existing strengths?

Still, very interesting and useful. After all, what profession could possibly be more interesting for economists to study than economics.

Hat tip to Marginal Revolution