Caveat to your first point: 3 years/5 years is probably understated
I think the UK “3 year degree” presumes one comes in with a strong masters’s degree (which are rare in the UK unless they are an MRes, which is 2 years IIRC. And they often last a bit longer than 3 years anyways, with extensions.
In the US five years would be on the quick side. If you come in with a strong masters degree and a clear idea of your research, and you are fully funded (so not a lot of teaching or RA work) you could do it in 5 or even 4.5. But I guess the median is more like 5.5-6 years. It took me 7 (but I came in without a master’s, I switched topics and advisors, I had funding issues and took a break to do some part time consulting).
Generally (not specific to econ), I would think of it as 3-4 vs 5-7. So it is a real difference, although less so if (as it sometimes does) the UK plan requires an additional (1-2yr) masters degree.
Caveat to your first point: 3 years/5 years is probably understated
I think the UK “3 year degree” presumes one comes in with a strong masters’s degree (which are rare in the UK unless they are an MRes, which is 2 years IIRC. And they often last a bit longer than 3 years anyways, with extensions.
In the US five years would be on the quick side. If you come in with a strong masters degree and a clear idea of your research, and you are fully funded (so not a lot of teaching or RA work) you could do it in 5 or even 4.5. But I guess the median is more like 5.5-6 years. It took me 7 (but I came in without a master’s, I switched topics and advisors, I had funding issues and took a break to do some part time consulting).
Generally (not specific to econ), I would think of it as 3-4 vs 5-7. So it is a real difference, although less so if (as it sometimes does) the UK plan requires an additional (1-2yr) masters degree.
UK students who want to get “top econ jobs” often try to do a postdoc after their PhD, maybe especially to polish up their research further