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The impact of chief diversity officers on diverse faculty hiring

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Listed:
  • Steven W. Bradley
  • James R. Garven
  • Wilson W. Law
  • James E. West

Abstract

Racial diversity among faculty, students, and administrators is increasing at universities in the United States. These changes have been uneven, with growth in underrepresented students exceeding that of faculty diversity. To address these and other inequities, a growing number of universities have established an executive‐level chief diversity officer (CDO). Our study offers a first empirical examination of this effort at selected 4‐year U.S. universities from 2001 to 2019 using unique data on the initial hiring date of a CDO and publicly available demographic data. We provide a comprehensive overview of demographic trends within our data and find confidence intervals around the estimated instantaneous average treatment effect for an executive‐level CDO on diverse hiring tightly contain zero. Estimated treatment effects are small and lack statistical significance within 4 years of a CDO position being established. We discuss other possible factors that explain trends toward higher diversity on campus and several possible constraints.

Suggested Citation

  • Steven W. Bradley & James R. Garven & Wilson W. Law & James E. West, 2022. "The impact of chief diversity officers on diverse faculty hiring," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 89(1), pages 3-36, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:soecon:v:89:y:2022:i:1:p:3-36
    DOI: 10.1002/soej.12584
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Sofia P. Baker & Cory Koedel, 2024. "Diversity trends among faculty in STEM and non-STEM fields at selective public universities in the U.S. from 2016 to 2023," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-9, December.
    2. Lee, Logan M. & Waddell, Glen R., 2021. "Diversity and the timing of preference in hiring decisions," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 432-459.
    3. Andersson, Fredrik W. & Jordahl, Henrik & Kärnä, Anders, 2021. "Ballooning Bureaucracy: Tracking the Growth of High-Skilled Administration within Swedish Higher Education," Working Paper Series 1399, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    4. Fredrik W. Andersson & Henrik Jordahl & Anders Kärnä, 2024. "Ballooning bureaucracy? Stylized facts of growing administration in Swedish higher education," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 35(2), pages 303-326, June.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • J78 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Public Policy (including comparable worth)

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