Programs, Student-Advisor Matches, initial Job Placements and Early Career Productivity for Agricultural Economics Ph.D.s from 1987-2000

We examine a unique data set on 1,530 students receiving their Ph.D.s from top-ranked Agricultural Economics programs between 1987 and 2000. The summary statistics suggest that the most productive students are most likely to graduate from top programs while students graduate from lower ranked programs are more likely not to publish. In addition, the more productive students are in their early careers the more likely their dissertation was directed by an elite advisor, and vice versa. Our main finding is that, controlling for program quality, student-advisor match is a significant predictor of early career research productivity. Moreover, controlling for advisor rank greatly reduces the estimated productivity differences due to program quality, ceteris paribus, suggesting that much of the estimated productivity difference previously attributed to differences in program quality might actually be explained by differences in the student-advisor match. Hence, the estimated differences suggest that the student-advisor match provides an important signal as to whether the student will publish any articles and particularly strong signal as to whether he or she will ever publish articles in top journals.