Working Paper No. 02-07

Do Economics Departments Search Optimally in Faculty Recruiting?
Yongmin Chen and Terra McKinnish
June 2002

ABSTRACT

Casual observation of faculty searches by economics departments suggests that search scope varies widely. Some departments search primarily in a narrow subfield, while others search in several general or even all fields. This raises two questions: First, what is the optimal search scope for a recruiting department? And second, do departments search optimally? This paper develops a simple search model in which optimal search scope is shown to increase in the quality rank of the department. Using data from Job Openings for Economists, we find that higher-ranked departments do indeed conduct broader searches. This relationship is robust to the exclusion of the highest-ranked departments from the sample. We correct for measurement error in department rankings by instrumenting a reputation-based ranking with a publication-based ranking, which increases the magnitude of the quality-rank coefficient. We find that a 10-place difference in department ranking is associated with 3.3-4.6 more JEL subfields listed in a position announcement.

JEL classification: J44, J64, D83, L8.
Keywords: employer search, search scope, faculty recruiting, economics department rankings.

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