I study the human capital development and firm-worker matching processes for
PhD economists. This group is useful for this purpose because the types of
jobs they hold can be easily categorized and they have an observable productivity
measure (that is, publications.) I derive a two-period model to motivate an
empirical analysis of economist job matching upon graduation, matching ten
years later, and productivity in the first ten years. I show that matching
to a higher ranked institution affects productivity. I present evidence that
employers improve their estimates of economists' ability early in their career
in a way that determines longer-term job placement. I also find that the
initial placement of economists to institutions does not show much evidence
of systematic misallocation along observable characteristics.