Incentives, Sorting and Productivity Along the Career: Evidence from a Sample of Top Economists

Aarhus School of Business, Dept. of Economics Working Paper No. 03-16

40 Pages Posted: 13 Feb 2004

See all articles by Tom Coupé

Tom Coupé

Economics Education and Research Consortium (EERC)

Valérie Smeets

Aarhus School of Business; Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) - European Center for Advanced Research in Economics and Statistics (ECARES)

Frederic Warzynski

Aarhus University - Department of Economics and Business Economics

Multiple version iconThere are 3 versions of this paper

Date Written: 2003

Abstract

In this paper we study empirically the labor market of economists. We look at the mobility and promotion patterns of a sample of 1,000 top economists over thirty years and link it to their productivity and other personal characteristics. We find that the probability of promotion and of upward mobility is positively related to past production. However, the sensitivity of promotion and mobility to production diminishes with experience, indicating the presence of a learning process. We also find evidence that economists respond to incentives. They tend to exert more effort at the beginning of their career when dynamic incentives are important. This finding is robust to the introduction of tenure, which has an additional negative ex post impact on production. Our results indicate therefore that both promotions and tenure have an effect on the provision of incentives. Finally, we detect evidence of a sorting process, as the more productive individuals are allocated to the higher ranked universities.

Keywords: dynamic incentives, career concerns, sorting, productivity, internal labor markets, human capital, economic departments, promotions, mobility, tenure

JEL Classification: J41, M51

Suggested Citation

Coupé, Tom and Smeets, Valérie and Warzynski, Frederic, Incentives, Sorting and Productivity Along the Career: Evidence from a Sample of Top Economists (2003). Aarhus School of Business, Dept. of Economics Working Paper No. 03-16, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=499002 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.499002

Tom Coupé

Economics Education and Research Consortium (EERC) ( email )

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Valérie Smeets

Aarhus School of Business ( email )

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Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) - European Center for Advanced Research in Economics and Statistics (ECARES)

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Frederic Warzynski (Contact Author)

Aarhus University - Department of Economics and Business Economics ( email )

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