Economists Gain Star Power
The tug-of-war over star academic economists is heating up, as U.S. universities continue to expand economics departments and revamp the way they teach the subject.
Harvard University is wooing Matthew Rabin of the University of California at Berkeley, a "behavioral economist" who seeks to explain why people don't always act in the rational ways that economists often expect.
The 41-year-old Mr. Rabin, best known for his research on the subject of procrastination and fairness, uses complex mathematical formulas to study human behavior. In 2001 he won the John Bates Clark Medal -- the top award for young economists -- and in 2000 was awarded the MacArthur Foundation's "genius" award, given annually to outstanding scientists, writers and artists.
Mr. Rabin confirmed that he is considering an offer from Harvard but declined to discuss the issue further.
The growing quest for economic talent is largely a response to market forces. Economics is the leading major at many top schools, including Harvard, where 15% of undergraduates major in the subject. Universities figure top-name professors will help recruit the brightest students.
"When you recruit top people, it also makes it easier to recruit top junior faculty," says Jose Scheinkman, an economist at Princeton.
The scramble for talent has driven up salaries. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, salaries for economics teachers, a category that includes professors, averaged nearly $140,000 a year -- based on a 52-week year -- in 2003, making it one of the highest-paid professions that the government tracks. But at the elite colleges, economics professors can earn substantially more, with some senior faculty commanding $150,000 to $250,000 for nine months' work. Other forms of compensation such as housing subsidies and signing bonuses can be used to bolster pay packages. Superstars, such as Nobel Prize winners, can earn in excess of $300,000.
By comparison, a leading English or history professor at a top school rarely makes more than $180,000, and average pay is far lower.
Universities increasingly are tapping economists to work in business schools, which traditionally pay higher salaries than other specialized institutions. There is also a much more uniform view among economists about who is a star, which helps focus the recruiting efforts of would-be employers.
The sheer growth of the field also is playing a role, as schools rush to expand their programs. Among the most ambitious is New York's Columbia University, which is enlarging its department from 28 to the equivalent of 41 full-time professors, plus an additional five visiting professors each year. Such growth has helped create a hiring rush at all levels.
But while demand for academic economists has grown, supply hasn't. According to the National Science Foundation, U.S. universities churned out 1,051 Ph.D. economists in 2003, the last year for which figures are available. The number has held roughly steady for a decade.
Timothy Bresnahan, chairman of the economics department at Stanford University in California, says there is strong interest in the relatively young crop of economists who received Ph.D.s in the 1990s and are focusing on using economic theory to address issues such as crime and school reform. "These people are using economic principles to study things which are wrong and are looking for ways to fix it," Mr. Bresnahan says, noting that this new branch of the discipline is helping to make economics more academically vibrant and attractive to students.
Stanford has a half-dozen economics openings, mostly the result of a recent retirement wave. One star candidate Stanford hopes to recruit is Caroline Minter Hoxby, a 38-year-old Harvard economist who has become a favorite of the Bush administration for her study of the economics of school reform.
Ms. Hoxby's research supports a number of controversial positions, including the idea that teachers' unions lead to poorer school performance and that competition from private schools makes for better public schools. "I like doing things because it's good economics. I'd never do anything for ideological reasons," she says.
Many universities want star professors who can help reshape how they teach economics. David Cutler, an economist and dean of social sciences at Harvard, notes that it has become more important to integrate economics with other specialties such as medicine and psychology. That is one reason Harvard is recruiting Jonathan Cohen, a Princeton psychologist who specializes in "neuroeconomics," the study of what happens in the brain when people make economic decisions. Mr. Cohen declined to comment.
"I don't know whether we would have been interested in him a few years ago," Mr. Cutler says. Harvard is expanding its economics department, though Mr. Cutler declined to specify how many professors the university is looking to hire.
Mark Gertler, chairman of New York University's economics department, says part of the challenge of recruiting is holding on to your own stars while trying to lure others from elsewhere. "Two of our senior faculty members have offers and we'll fight very hard to keep them," he says.
经济学家抢手 薪资水涨船高
随著美国各所大学继续扩大经济学系的规模、改革治学方式，对明星经济学家的争夺正在升温。
哈佛大学(Harvard University)向加州大学(University of California)伯克利分校的马修?拉宾(Matthew Rabin)频送秋波。拉宾是一位“行为经济学家”，这门学科解释为何人们有时不像传统经济学家预计的那样照常理行事。
拉宾现年41岁，以研究延迟行为和公平理论而知名。他利用复杂的数学公式来研究人类行为。2001年，拉宾赢得了John Bates Clark奖章──青年经济学家的最高荣誉；2000年他还被麦克阿瑟基金会(MacArthur Foundation)授予“天才”奖，这个奖项每年向杰出的科学家、作家和艺术家颁发。
拉宾证实他正在考虑哈佛大学的邀请，但拒绝透露更多详情。
知名经济学家十分抢手在很大程度上是市场因素使然。经济学是很多著名大学的重要课程，哈佛大学15%的本科学生都主修经济学。各所大学认为，聘请著名经济学家任教有助于招收潜质出众的学生。
普林斯顿经济学家乔斯?沙因克曼(Jose Scheinkman)说，有了知名经济学家以后，招收一流的教职员工就容易多了。
这也让经济学家的薪资节节攀升。据美国劳工统计局(Bureau of Labor Statistics)数据，以每年52周计算，2003年包括教授职位在内的经济学教师平均年薪14万美元，是政府所得数据中年薪最高的职位之一。但如果在知名大学任教，经济学教授的年薪会更高。一些高级讲师一年工作9个月，薪资就在15万至25万美元之间。此外还有一些其他形式的补偿，例如住房补贴和签约奖金等，总收入就更高了。声明卓著的教授，例如诺贝尔奖金(Nobel Prize)获得者的年薪甚至会超过30万美元。
与之相比，著名大学顶尖的英语或历史学教授的年薪很少超过18万美元，平均年薪就更低了。
大学里越来越热衷于把经济学家请进商学院任教，而商学院的薪资往往高于其他专业研究机构。经济学界对于谁是著名学者观点非常统一，这也有利于各所大学敲定招聘对象的范围。
学院迅速扩张也是原因之一，各所大学正在争先恐后地扩充自己的教研课目。动作最大的要算纽约的哥伦比亚大学(Columbia University)，该校把经济学系教授的人数从28人扩充到相当于41名全职教授加每年5名客座教授的程度。这种扩充让各层次的经济学教员都炙手可热。
不过，对学术性经济学家的需求在迅猛增长，但供应却没有跟上需求增长的步伐。据国家科学基金会(National Science Foundation)最新数据，2003年美国各所大学毕业的拥有博士学位的经济学家共1,051人。近十年来基本如此。
加州斯坦福大学(Stanford University)经济学系主任蒂莫西?布雷斯纳汉(Timothy Bresnahan)表示，相对年轻、在九十年代末期获得博士学位、目前专门从事用经济学理论探讨犯罪和学校改革等题目的经济学家比较抢手。“这些人利用经济学原理研究社会误区，寻找纠正的办法，”布雷斯纳汉说。他还指出，这个新的研究课题有助于让经济学既保持学术活力，也能吸引学生的兴趣。
斯坦福大学目前有六个经济学教授职位空缺，主要是最近大批教授退休所致。斯坦福看中的一位著名学者是38岁的哈佛大学经济学家卡罗琳?明特?霍克斯拜(Caroline Minter Hoxby)。她对学校改革的经济学研究深得布什政府(Bush administration)的赏识。
霍克斯拜的研究为一系列颇具争议的观点提供了学术支持，包括教师工会的存在会削弱学校的教学业绩，以及私立学校的竞争会对公立学校的教学起到促进作用等。“我作这些研究是因为它们能给社会带来好处，我绝不会从意识形态角度出发去做事，”她说。
许多大学希望聘请到的著名经济学家能帮助改革学校教授经济学的方式。哈佛大学社会科学系主任、经济学家大卫?卡特勒(David Cutler)指出，将经济学同医学和心理学等专业学科融为一体已经变得越来越重要了。这就是哈佛大学聘请乔纳森?科恩(Jonathan Cohen)的原因。他是普林斯顿的心理学家，专门研究“神经经济学”──人们在作出经济决策时大脑活动的一门学科。科恩拒绝置评。
“我不知道要是几年前，哈佛会不会对他有兴趣，”卡特勒说。哈佛大学也在扩充经济学系，但卡特勒不愿透露哈佛计划聘请几位教授。
纽约大学(New York University)经济学系主任马克?格特勒(Mark Gertler)表示，学校面临的挑战就是既要留住现有的知名学者，还要尽力吸引其他地方的人才。“我们的两位高级教员已经接到其他机构的聘请信，我们正在尽力挽留他们”，他说。
