IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/edecon/v27y2019i3p323-337.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A tale of two tracks

Author

Listed:
  • Muhammad Asali

Abstract

We provide a simple framework that helps explore the need for contingent (teaching) jobs in academia alongside the usual tenured-professorship positions. It also explains the coexistence of these two types of jobs in research universities as an equilibrium phenomenon. Imprecisions in the academic editorial process, combined with the increasing difficulty of producing academic research, is suggested as a possible explanation for the recent increasing trend in the share of non-tenure-track teaching jobs in academia as well as the widening wage gap between tenured-professors and teaching faculty. Alternative interpretations are explored.

Suggested Citation

  • Muhammad Asali, 2019. "A tale of two tracks," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(3), pages 323-337, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:edecon:v:27:y:2019:i:3:p:323-337
    DOI: 10.1080/09645292.2019.1586836
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09645292.2019.1586836
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09645292.2019.1586836?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 look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sascha Baghestanian & Sergey V. Popov, 2018. "On publication, refereeing and working hard," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 51(4), pages 1419-1459, November.
    2. John Hudson, 1996. "Trends in Multi-authored Papers in Economics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 153-158, Summer.
    3. John P. Conley, 2012. "Low acceptance rates, commercial publishing, and the future of scholarly communication," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 32(4), pages 1-37.
    4. Ronald G. Ehrenberg & Liang Zhang, 2005. "Do Tenured and Tenure-Track Faculty Matter?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 40(3).
    5. Sauer, Raymond D, 1988. "Estimates of the Returns to Quality and Coauthorship in Economic Academia," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(4), pages 855-866, August.
    6. Charles E. Scott & John J. Siegfried, 2019. "American Economic Association Universal Academic Questionnaire Summary Statistics," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 109, pages 590-592, May.
    7. Chen, Zhao & Lee, Sang-Ho, 2009. "Incentives in academic tenure under asymmetric information," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 300-308, March.
    8. Bruce Cater & Byron Lew & Marcus Pivato, 2017. "The Efficiency of Tenure Contracts in Academic Employment," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 19(2), pages 331-361, April.
    9. Jonathan Brogaard & Joseph Engelberg & Edward Van Wesep, 2018. "Do Economists Swing for the Fences after Tenure?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 32(1), pages 179-194, Winter.
    10. Szenberg, Michael, editor & Ramrattan, Lall, editor, 2014. "Secrets of Economics Editors," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262525461, April.
    11. Liang Zhang & Ronald G. Ehrenberg & Xiangmin Liu, 2015. "Changing Faculty Employment at Four-Year Colleges and Universities in the United States," NBER Working Papers 21827, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Sergey V. Popov, 2015. "Tenure-track contract helps self-selection," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 35(4), pages 2482-2486.
    13. Hirschel Kasper, 1986. "On Understanding the Rise in Non-Tenure Track Appointments," Working Papers 591, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    14. McDowell, John M & Melvin, Michael, 1983. "The Determinants of Co-Authorship: An Analysis of the Economics Literature," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 65(1), pages 155-160, February.
    15. Glenn Ellison, 2002. "The Slowdown of the Economics Publishing Process," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 110(5), pages 947-993, October.
    16. Arthur E. Attema & Werner B.F. Brouwer & Job Van Exel, 2014. "Your Right Arm For A Publication In Aer?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 52(1), pages 495-502, January.
    17. David Card & Stefano DellaVigna, 2013. "Nine Facts about Top Journals in Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 51(1), pages 144-161, March.
    18. Jonathan B. Berk & Campbell R. Harvey & David Hirshleifer, 2017. "How to Write an Effective Referee Report and Improve the Scientific Review Process," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(1), pages 231-244, Winter.
    19. Kimmitt, Michael C., 2009. "A model of adjuncts in higher education," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 105(1), pages 68-70, October.
    20. repec:fth:prinin:211 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Carmichael, H Lorne, 1988. "Incentives in Academics: Why Is There Tenure?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(3), pages 453-472, June.
    22. Ronald G. Ehrenberg, 2004. "Prospects in the Academic Labor Market for Economists," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 18(2), pages 227-238, Spring.
    23. Asali, Muhammad, 2018. "A Tale of Two Academic Tracks," IZA Discussion Papers 11423, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    24. Hirschel Kasper, 1986. "On Understanding the Rise in Non-Tenure Track Appointments," Working Papers 591, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    25. Bruce Cater & Byron Lew & Barry Smith, 2008. "A theory of tenure-track contracts," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(2), pages 203-218.
    26. Shapiro, Carl & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1984. "Equilibrium Unemployment as a Worker Discipline Device," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(3), pages 433-444, June.
    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. Asali, Muhammad, 2018. "A Tale of Two Academic Tracks," IZA Discussion Papers 11423, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Stan J. Liebowitz, 2014. "Willful Blindness: The Inefficient Reward Structure In Academic Research," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 52(4), pages 1267-1283, October.
    3. Daniel S. Hamermesh, 2013. "Six Decades of Top Economics Publishing: Who and How?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 51(1), pages 162-172, March.
    4. Lukas Kuld & John O'Hagan, 2017. "Rise of Multi-authored Papers in Economics: Demise of the 'Lone Star' and Why?," Trinity Economics Papers tep0517, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics.
    5. Aboozar Hadavand & Daniel S. Hamermesh & Wesley W. Wilson, 2021. "Publishing Economics: How Slow? Why Slow? Is Slow Productive? Fixing Slow?," NBER Working Papers 29147, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Lukas Kuld & John O’Hagan, 2018. "Rise of multi-authored papers in economics: Demise of the ‘lone star’ and why?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 114(3), pages 1207-1225, March.
    7. Önder, Ali Sina & Schweitzer, Sascha & Yilmazkuday, Hakan, 2021. "Specialization, field distance, and quality in economists’ collaborations," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(4).
    8. Hendrik P. van Dalen, 1999. "The Golden Age of Nobel Economists," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 43(2), pages 19-35, October.
    9. Sanjeev Goyal & Marco J. van der Leij & José Luis Moraga-Gonzalez, 2006. "Economics: An Emerging Small World," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 114(2), pages 403-432, April.
    10. Glenn Ellison, 2002. "The Slowdown of the Economics Publishing Process," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 110(5), pages 947-993, October.
    11. Frank Mueller‐Langer & Richard Watt, 2021. "Optimal pricing and quality of academic journals and the ambiguous welfare effects of forced open access: A two‐sided model," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(8), pages 1945-1959, December.
    12. David Card & Stefano DellaVigna, 2017. "What do Editors Maximize? Evidence from Four Leading Economics Journals," NBER Working Papers 23282, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Damien Besancenot & Kim Huynh & Francisco Serranito, 2015. "Co-Authorship And Individual Research Productivity In Economics: Assessing The Assortative Matching Hypothesis," Working Papers halshs-01252373, HAL.
    14. Damien Besancenot & Kim Van Huynh & Francisco Serranito, 2015. " Thou shalt not work alone ," Working Papers hal-01175758, HAL.
    15. Ali Sina Önder & Sascha Schweitzer & Hakan Yilmazkuday, 2021. "Field Distance and Quality in Economists’ Collaborations," Working Papers in Economics & Finance 2021-04, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth Business School, Economics and Finance Subject Group.
    16. Hendrik P. Dalen, 2021. "How the publish-or-perish principle divides a science: the case of economists," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(2), pages 1675-1694, February.
    17. Seongkyoon Jeong & Jae Young Choi & Jaeyun Kim, 2011. "The determinants of research collaboration modes: exploring the effects of research and researcher characteristics on co-authorship," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 89(3), pages 967-983, December.
    18. Jenny Bourne & Nathan Grawe & Nathan D. Grawe & Michael Hemesath & Maya Jensen, 2022. "Scholarly Activity among Economists at Liberal Arts Colleges: A Life Cycle Analysis," Working Papers 2022-01, Carleton College, Department of Economics.
    19. van Dalen, Hendrik Peter, 2021. "How the publish-or-perish principle divides a science: The case of economists," Other publications TiSEM a6a5a855-bb5a-4d52-a841-3, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    20. Francis Bidault & Thomas Hildebrand, 2012. "The distribution of partnerships benefits: Evidence from co-authorships in economics journals," ESMT Research Working Papers ESMT-12-08, ESMT European School of Management and Technology.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J41 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Labor Contracts
    • J44 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Professional Labor Markets and Occupations
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions

    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:taf:edecon:v:27:y:2019:i:3:p:323-337. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CEDE20 .

    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.