above is that psychiatry is one of the lowest-paying specialties in medicine, and that this relatively low compensation may impact negatively on recruitment to the discipline’s residency. At the same time, income correlations alone likely oversimplify the importance of economics to medical students selecting a specialty. A 2003 study found that medical students were apt to consider specialties based on, from most to least important, expected annual work hours, length of residency training, weekly hours worked, and earnings (Thornton and Esposto, 2003). Thus it appears that medical students value time as well as money.

In addition to high student debt, low stipends during residency and fellowship, and lower salaries in comparison with those of other medical specialties, psychiatry trainees interested in research may face the possi-

FIGURE 5-1 Ratio of demand to supply of medical students who designate a given residency as their first career choice, versus the expected lifetime income of that residency. Based on 1992 National Residency Matching data for 14,030 U.S. medical graduates. Supply is the total number of national slots available in that specialty.

SOURCE: Data from Nicholson (2002).