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Seniority, External Labor Markets, and Faculty Pay

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Abstract

We estimate the returns to seniority (the wage-tenure profile) for university faculty, and the degree to which these returns respond to entry-level salaries (or opportunity wages) a relationship unexplored in work to date. Using data on faculty at a Big Ten university (ours), we estimate elasticities of senior-faculty salaries with respect to entry-level salaries, and find that these elasticities decline with seniority. The evidence both provides an explanation of faculty salary compression and suggests the importance of controlling for entry-level salaries in obtaining estimates of the returns to seniority.
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  • Byron W. Brown & Stephen A. Woodbury, "undated". "Seniority, External Labor Markets, and Faculty Pay," Upjohn Working Papers bbsaw1998, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
  • Handle: RePEc:upj:weupjo:bbsaw1998
    Note: Appears in Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance 38(4): 771-798
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    Cited by:

    1. Debra A. Barbezat & James W. Hughes, 2001. "The Effect Of Job Mobility On Academic Salaries," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 19(4), pages 409-423, October.
    2. Ward-Warmedinger, Melanie E., 1999. "Salary and the Gender Salary Gap in the Academic Profession," IZA Discussion Papers 64, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Rob Euwals & Melanie Ward, "undated". "The Remuneration of British Academics," Discussion Papers in Public Sector Economics 00/7, Division of Economics, School of Business, University of Leicester.
    4. Wendy A. Stock & John J. Siegfried, 2006. "Where Are They Now? Tracking the Ph.D. Class of 1997," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 73(2), pages 472-488, October.
    5. Rob Euwals & Melanie Ward, 2005. "What matters most: teaching or research? Empirical evidence on the remuneration of British academics," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(14), pages 1655-1672.
    6. Toumanoff, Peter, 2005. "The effects of gender on salary-at-hire in the academic labor market," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 179-188, April.
    7. McDonald, James B. & Sorensen, Jeff, 2017. "Academic salary compression across disciplines and over time," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 87-104.
    8. Ward-Warmedinger, Melanie & Euwals, Rob, 2000. "What Matters Most: Teaching or Research? Empirical Evidence on the Remuneration of British Academics," CEPR Discussion Papers 2628, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Bernt Bratsberg & James F. Ragan & John T. Warren, 2010. "Does Raiding Explain The Negative Returns To Faculty Seniority?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 48(3), pages 704-721, July.
    10. Euwals, Rob & Ward-Warmedinger, Melanie E., 2000. "The Remuneration of British Academics," IZA Discussion Papers 178, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Ragan Jr, James F. & Warren, John T. & Bratsberg, Bernt, 1999. "How similar are pay structures in 'similar' departments of economics?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 347-360, June.
    12. Nelson, Paul A. & Monson, Terry, 2006. "Research Funding, Experience, and Seniority in Academia," Review of Applied Economics, Lincoln University, Department of Financial and Business Systems, vol. 2(1), pages 1-10.
    13. Sun, Minghe, 2002. "A multiple objective programming approach for determining faculty salary equity adjustments," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 138(2), pages 302-319, April.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    economists; faculty pay; labor demand;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A2 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics
    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs

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