IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/corfin/v44y2017icp487-505.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Alchian on tenure: Some long awaited empirical evidence

Author

Listed:
  • Brown, William O.

Abstract

Armen Alchian made many important contributions to our understanding of organizations. One of the most important insights was related to organizations of higher education and the existence of tenure. However, the primary empirical predictions of his explanation for tenure have remained unexplored. This paper provides some empirical evidence on these predictions. Alchian’s predictions receive strong support. The results indicate that tenure is significantly more likely to occur in nonprofit institutions than in for-profit institutions, tenure is more common in public institutions than in private nonprofit institutions, and among private nonprofit institutions the incidence of tenure is positively related to the level of endowment support and negatively related to the institution’s reliance on tuition and fees.

Suggested Citation

  • Brown, William O., 2017. "Alchian on tenure: Some long awaited empirical evidence," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 487-505.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:corfin:v:44:y:2017:i:c:p:487-505
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2014.12.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0929119914001539
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2014.12.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Claudia Goldin & Lawrence F. Katz, 1999. "The Shaping of Higher Education: The Formative Years in the United States, 1890 to 1940," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 13(1), pages 37-62, Winter.
    2. David M. Linsenmeier & Harvey S. Rosen & Cecilia Elena Rouse, 2006. "Financial Aid Packages and College Enrollment Decisions: An Econometric Case Study," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 88(1), pages 126-145, February.
    3. Gordon C. Winston, 1999. "Subsidies, Hierarchy and Peers: The Awkward Economics of Higher Education," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 13(1), pages 13-36, Winter.
    4. Willam O. Brown, 1997. "University Governance and Academic Tenure: A Property Rights Explanation," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 153(3), pages 441-441, September.
    5. Ronald G. Ehrenberg & Paul J. Pieper & Rachel A. Willis, 1998. "Do Economics Departments With Lower Tenure Probabilities Pay Higher Faculty Salaries?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 80(4), pages 503-512, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kaganovich, Michael & Sarpca, Sinan & Su, Xuejuan, 2020. "Competition in Higher Education," Working Papers 2020-3, University of Alberta, Department of Economics.
    2. Ehrenberg, R.G.Ronald G., 2004. "Econometric studies of higher education," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 121(1-2), pages 19-37.
    3. Egon Franck & Torsten Pudack & Christian Opitz, 2001. "Zur Funktion von Topmanagement-Beratungen als Karrieresprungsbrett für High Potentials," Working Papers 0003, University of Zurich, Institute for Strategy and Business Economics (ISU).
    4. Michael Baker & Gary Solon, 2003. "Earnings Dynamics and Inequality among Canadian Men, 1976-1992: Evidence from Longitudinal Income Tax Records," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(2), pages 267-288, April.
    5. Ronald G. Ehrenberg, 2002. "Studying Ourselves: The Academic Labor Market," NBER Working Papers 8965, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Waddell, Glen R. & Singell Jr., Larry D., 2011. "Do no-loan policies change the matriculation patterns of low-income students?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 203-214, April.
    7. Susan Dynarski, 2002. "The Behavioral and Distributional Implications of Aid for College," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(2), pages 279-285, May.
    8. Dahlia K. Remler & Elda Pema, 2009. "Why do Institutions of Higher Education Reward Research While Selling Education?," NBER Working Papers 14974, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Jessica S. Howell, 2011. "The Economics of Education: Applying Economic Theory and Empirical Tools to Public Policy," Chapters, in: Gail M. Hoyt & KimMarie McGoldrick (ed.), International Handbook on Teaching and Learning Economics, chapter 45, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Heining, Jörg & Jerger, Jürgen & Lingens, Jörg, 2007. "Success in the Academic Labour Market for Economics - The German Experience," University of Regensburg Working Papers in Business, Economics and Management Information Systems 422, University of Regensburg, Department of Economics.
    11. Quentin David, 2009. "The Determinants of Research Production by U.S. Universities," DEM Discussion Paper Series 09-16, Department of Economics at the University of Luxembourg.
    12. E. Han Kim & Min Zhu, 2010. "Universities as Firms: The Case of US Overseas Programs," NBER Chapters, in: American Universities in a Global Market, pages 163-201, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Biot-Paquerot, Guillaume, 2006. "Organes de gouvernance et paradoxe démocratique: Le cas des conseils d’administration d’université [Democratic paradox and governance mediums: the case of university boards]," MPRA Paper 2302, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. John J. Cheslock & Ozan Jaquette, 2022. "Concentrated or Fragmented? The U.S. Market for Online Higher Education," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 63(1), pages 33-59, February.
    15. Cunningham, Brendan M., 2009. "Faculty: Thy administrator's keeper? Some evidence," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 444-453, August.
    16. Cory Koedel, 2009. "Postsecondary Education Structure," Working Papers 0906, Department of Economics, University of Missouri, revised 04 Oct 2010.
    17. Christopher Bennett & Brent Evans & Christopher Marsicano, 2021. "Taken for Granted? Effects of Loan-Reduction Initiatives on Student Borrowing, Admission Metrics, and Campus Diversity," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 62(5), pages 569-599, August.
    18. Bertocchi, Graziella & Dimico, Arcangelo, 2014. "Slavery, education, and inequality," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 197-209.
    19. Joshua L. Rosenbloom, 1999. "The Challenges of Economic Maturity: New England, 1880 - 1940," NBER Historical Working Papers 0113, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Shao, Ling, 2014. "Estimating the relationship between calculated financial need and actual aid received using quarter of birth instruments," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 165-174.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Alchian; Nonprofits; Property rights; Tenure;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L3 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise
    • G3 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:corfin:v:44:y:2017:i:c:p:487-505. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jcorpfin .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.