What Do Australian Economics PhDs Do?

Australian universities now produce about 100 economics PhD graduates each year. Many graduates, perhaps most, aspire to an academic position. How many ultimately achieve this ambition? Relatedly, how long does the PhD take to complete, how many publications emerge from the research and how useful do graduates regard their PhD studies-was it time well spent? These questions relate to the social value of the substantial investment devoted to PhD training in economics, questions which have gone largely unaddressed up to now. The article also contains information on recent trends in graduate numbers and identifies which universities have consistently been the leading producers.