The Market for Agricultural Economists: Career Dynamics and Faculty Mobility

Understanding the factors that shape academic career trajectories is critical for informing professional development, mentorship, and institutional expectations across promotion stages in agricultural economics. Using a hand-collected dataset of 452 scholars affiliated with Agricultural and Applied Economics Association member institutions, this study estimates the factors associated with securing an initial tenure-track assistant professor position. In addition, this study uses event-study models to analyze changes in publication and grant trajectories around two key promotion events: assistant to associate professor, and associate to full professor. For tenure-track entry of recently graduated PhD students, grant experience prior to graduation and obtaining a PhD from a university outside the U.S. are factors associated with initial placement. When expanding the analysis to include scholars moving from other positions, prior academic experience substantially increases placement odds into a tenure-track position. The results of the event analysis show that there is increased research productivity before promotion to associate professor, with both total and the first-author publications peaking before tenure. Similarly, grant activity increases prior to tenure but remains relatively stable after promotion. For the transition from associate professor to full professor, the changes in the number of publications increase modestly after promotion, the first-author publications decline, and grant activity shows a slight decrease in total grants and stable principal investigator/ project director involvement. The findings of the study highlight distinct career dynamics across promotion stages and provide insights into research output and professional development in agricultural economics.