Economists devote up to half of working hours to research
Higher-paid research economists tend to spend more time on own research
Central bank research economists spend longer hours on their own research than colleagues with a policy focus, data from the Economics Benchmarks 2026 shows.
Research economists spend an average of 48.4% of working hours on their research, in a typical month. The maximum in the sample is 90%. The monthly share of time policy economists allocate to own research averages 18.5%, while the highest is 60%. The sample has a median value of 50% and 15% for research and policy economists, respectively.
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