We begin our analysis with the candidate demographics. We will look at the trend of the candidates over time, and the key insights from the candidate demographics. The graph below shows the trend of the candidates and trend of the gender distribution over time. Through this we can also see the trend of gender distribution.
This visualization shows the overall trends in PhD candidate demographics over time.
The graph illustrates the changing composition of economics PhD candidates, highlighting important patterns in gender distribution across years.
Additional lines show the trend for individual schools, see the legend for more details.
The trend of Candidates shows expected result. As time progresses the overall numbe of candidate increase due to both the increase in PHD students and the increase in the number of schools offering this PHD program. The gender distribution shows that the percentage of female candidates is fluctuating between 20 to 40 percent with recent years average around 30 percent. Overally there is a notable increase from the beginning of the data collection, with fluctuation througout the years. This suggest that the gender distribution is not affected by the number of schools offering this PHD program.
A part of this fluctuatation is due to the increase in the number of schools offering this PHD program. The number of schools offering this PHD program has increasedover the years. Some programs are relatively new and have not yet collected enough data to show a trend while some other programs have more than 20 years of data. Yet, as we can see from the gender distribution of Duke and UT Austin, the gender distribution is relatively stable over the years. This suggest that the increase in the number of schools offering this PHD program is not the main driver of the gender distribution.
For this section, we are going to look at the placement data from the perspective of the candidates. We will look at the distribution of placements by year, and the key insights from the placement data.
The placement analysis reveals interesting patterns in how PhD candidates transition into various roles after graduation. While academia remains the primary career trajectory for Economics PhDs, alternative career paths, particularly in the private sector, are becoming more common. The increasing share of private-sector employment may indicate a shifting landscape where economic expertise is increasingly valued outside of traditional academic institutions. Additionally, the relatively stable but smaller share of government placements suggests a steady demand for economists in policy-making and public administration.
Here is another view of the same placement data. Through this Sankey Diagram, we can see how the distribution of placements changes over time. We can observe a clear shift in the distribution of placements from academia to the private sector and government.
Now we will look at the placment's affect on the gender distribution.
This visualization shows the placement composition of the candidates by gender. We can see that the placement composition is relatively similar between male and female candidates. This suggest that the placement is not affected by the gender of the candidates. This is a good news for the gender equality in the economics field.
Another potential factor is the University Ranking. For this section, we will look at how gender might affect the gender distribution.
For this analysis, we breaks university into four rankings:
From the analysis above, we can see that the gender distribution is not affected by the number of schools offering this PHD program, the placement, or the ranking. This suggest that the gender distribution is not affected by the external factors, but rather by the internal factors. This leads to the question: Does gender distribution exists in Economics PhD?
To answer this question, we will look at the gender distribution in 2020. According to Brookings Institute, the gender distribution for Economics PhD in 2020 is: 66% went to men and 34% to women. This gender gap appears to start early - only about one-third of undergraduate economics students are women, which closely mirrors the distribution we see at the PhD level.
Based on our comprehensive analysis, we can conlude say that there is no significant evidence of systematic gender discrimination within Economics PhD programs themselves. The gender gap we observe is largely inherited from earlier stages in the academic pipeline - particularly at the undergraduate level. Once women enter PhD programs, they experience similar placement outcomes and opportunities across all university rankings. The real challenge lies not in addressing discrimination within PhD programs, but in understanding and addressing why fewer women choose to pursue economics in the first place.