The environmental cost of the international job market for economists

We provide an estimate of the environmental impact recruitment system in economics profession, known as “international job market for economists”. Each year, most graduating PhDs seeking jobs academia, government, or companies participate this market. The follows a standardized process, where candidates are pre-screened short interview which takes place at annual meeting Europe United States. Most interviews arranged via non-profit online platform, econjobmarket.org, kindly agreed to share its anonymized data with us. Using dataset, we individual 1057 and one hundred committees who attended EEA AEA meetings December 2019 January 2020. calculate that pre-screening generated equivalent about 4800 tons avoidable CO2-eq comprehensive economic cost over €4.4 million. contrast overall assessment against three counterfactual scenarios: alternative in-person system, hybrid (where videoconference is used some candidates) fully (as it happened 2020–21 due COVID-19 pandemic). Overall, study can offer useful information shape future standards more sustainable way.