Economists Can Earn Investment Bankers' Incomes

The average 9-month salary for economics professors at the University of Michgian-Ann Arbor is $155,000, there are 9 professor who make more than $200,000, and the highest paid professor in economics makes $245,000. But high-profile economists like the Professor David Teece at University of California-Berkeley who provide expert testimony can earn $2 million or more a year, according to this front page article in yesterday's WSJ, "An Economist's Courtroom Bonanza."

"We've given economists the chance to earn investment bankers' incomes," Prof. Teece says. "If you're successful with us, it isn't hard to make half a million dollars a year." He estimates that 60 of his associates earned more than $500,000 last year.

Professor Teece's hourly fee? $850.