Economists job market/search costs

[GMUresearch]

(If this is not truly armchair material, I apologize in advance) Dear Armchairs, Advice for novice economics graduates is not scarce in several sources.  As a fourth year phd student from Mason, however, there are some questions that I have not seen addressed very much--and here I want to profit from the considerable armchair audience familiarized with the demand and supply of George Mason (or similar programs) graduates. 1. Once you are almost ABD, what is the opportunity cost of prolonging your graduation one more year, as opposed to just taking your chances at the job market right now? Typically, the advise given is to check with your advisor, and whenever he says "go", one must go into the market.  Which is fine, but, 2. What is the opportunity cost of trying the job market "prematurely", and, worse comes to worse, just cancel the job search if nothing appealing comes about and then try again the year after that? Other advice is that the more (or the stronger) the publications, teaching, and research record, the better your chances are in the market. Surely, but, 3.  What is the benefit, at the margin, of going into the market with say one, two, or zero publications?  (For instance, perhaps the market is so tight that the marginal benefit is not that big--after all, low-tier institutions may not be that different.) Finally, other advice is to be patient and realistic.  Even a non-ideal placement is a good place to start, and from there it's up to yourself to move up--or not.  But, 4.  What increases the chances of better placement in the future more, one more year as a grad student (doing papers, teaching, etc.), or one or two years of work in X-institution? Again, if this posting is off-mark, I apologize.  Otherwise, I'd appreciate any comments. Thanks, -An economist who cannot "do the math" of going into the market. :-)