IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/24215.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Why Are Professors "Poorly Paid"?

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel S. Hamermesh

Abstract

Using Current Population Survey data, I demonstrate a 15-percentage point wage disadvantage among academics compared to all other doctorate-holders with the same demographics. Time-diary data show that academics’ work hours are distributed more evenly over the week and day, although their total workweeks are equally long. This smoother distribution of work time accounts for as much as one-third of the wage disadvantage. Survey data (of economists only) indicate that flexible scheduling is an attraction, but only fourth among the characteristics of academic life.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel S. Hamermesh, 2018. "Why Are Professors "Poorly Paid"?," NBER Working Papers 24215, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24215
    Note: LS
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w24215.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hamermesh, Daniel S., 2005. "Routine," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 29-53, January.
    2. Scott Stern, 2004. "Do Scientists Pay to Be Scientists?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(6), pages 835-853, June.
    3. Goddeeris, John H, 1988. "Compensating Differentials and Self-selection: An Application to Lawyers," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(2), pages 411-428, April.
    4. Johnson, George E & Stafford, Frank P, 1974. "The Earnings and Promotion of Women Faculty," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 64(6), pages 888-903, December.
    5. Hamermesh, Daniel S., 2008. "Direct estimates of household production," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 98(1), pages 31-34, January.
    6. Daniel S. Hamermesh & Harley Frazis & Jay Stewart, 2005. "Data Watch: The American Time Use Survey," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 19(1), pages 221-232, Winter.
    7. Johnson, George E & Stafford, Frank P, 1974. "Lifetime Earnings in a Professional Labor Market: Academic Economists," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(3), pages 549-569, May/June.
    8. 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.
    9. Sam Allgood & William B. Walstad, 2013. "How Economists Allocate Time to Teaching and Research," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(3), pages 654-658, May.
    10. 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.
    11. Alexander Sohn, 2016. "Poor university professors? The relative earnings decline of German professors during the twentieth century," Scandinavian Economic History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 64(2), pages 84-102, June.
    12. repec:wly:soecon:v:82:2:y:2015:p:430-452 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Karen Mumford & Cristina Sechel, 2020. "Pay and Job Rank among Academic Economists in the UK: Is Gender Relevant?," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 58(1), pages 82-113, March.
    2. Nikolova, Milena & Cnossen, Femke, 2020. "What makes work meaningful and why economists should care about it," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).

    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. Kyle R. Myers & Wei Yang Tham & Jerry Thursby & Marie Thursby & Nina Cohodes & Karim Lakhani & Rachel Mural & Yilun Xu, 2023. "New Facts and Data about Professors and their Research," Papers 2312.01442, arXiv.org.
    2. Henry Sauermann & Michael Roach, 2011. "Not All Scientists pay to be Scientists:," DRUID Working Papers 11-03, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.
    3. William J. Moore & Robert J. Newman & M. Dek Terrell, 2002. "Academic Economists' Pay and Productivity: A Tale of Two Countries," Departmental Working Papers 2002-16, Department of Economics, Louisiana State University.
    4. Alexandre Mas & Amanda Pallais, 2017. "Valuing Alternative Work Arrangements," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(12), pages 3722-3759, December.
    5. Daniel S. Hamermesh, 2009. "Grazing, Goods and Girth: Determinants and Effects," NBER Working Papers 15277, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Yoram Weiss, 1975. "The Earnings of Scientists, 1960-1970: Experience, Age and Vintage Effects," NBER Working Papers 0099, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Christiane Bode & Jasjit Singh, 2018. "Taking a hit to save the world? Employee participation in a corporate social initiative," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(4), pages 1003-1030, April.
    8. Bernt Bratsberg & James F. Ragan Jr. & John T. Warren, 2003. "Negative Returns to Seniority: New Evidence in Academic Markets," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 56(2), pages 306-323, January.
    9. Hamermesh, Daniel S., 2010. "Incentives, time use and BMI: The roles of eating, grazing and goods," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 2-15, March.
    10. Sauermann, Henry & Roach, Michael, 2014. "Not all scientists pay to be scientists: PhDs’ preferences for publishing in industrial employment," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 32-47.
    11. Jay Stewart, 2010. "The Timing of Maternal Work and Time with Children," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 64(1), pages 181-200, October.
    12. Graves, Philip E. & Marchand, James R. & Sexton, Robert L., 2002. "Hedonic wage equations for higher education faculty," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(5), pages 491-496, October.
    13. Ward-Warmedinger, Melanie E., 1999. "Salary and the Gender Salary Gap in the Academic Profession," IZA Discussion Papers 64, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Jay Stewart, 2014. "Early to bed and earlier to rise: school, maternal employment, and children’s sleep," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 29-50, March.
    15. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/8651 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Hans K. Hvide & Benjamin F. Jones, 2018. "University Innovation and the Professor's Privilege," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(7), pages 1860-1898, July.
    17. Daniel S. Hamermesh & Katie R. Genadek & Michael C. Burda, 2021. "Racial/Ethnic Differences in Non-Work at Work," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 74(2), pages 272-292, March.
    18. Hussinger, Katrin & Pellens, Maikel, 2019. "Guilt by association: How scientific misconduct harms prior collaborators," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 516-530.
    19. Hottenrott, Hanna & Lawson, Cornelia, 2014. "Flying the nest: How the home department shapes researchers’ career paths," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis LEI & BRICK - Laboratory of Economics of Innovation "Franco Momigliano", Bureau of Research in Innovation, Complexity and Knowledge, Collegio 201409, University of Turin.
    20. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pc:p:3573-3630 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Andrew C. Johnston & Carla Johnston, 2021. "Is Compassion a Good Career Move?: Nonprofit Earnings Differentials from Job Changes," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 56(4), pages 1226-1253.
    22. David Grosse Kathoefer & Jens Leker, 2012. "Knowledge transfer in academia: an exploratory study on the Not-Invented-Here Syndrome," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 37(5), pages 658-675, October.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J33 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Compensation Packages; Payment Methods
    • J44 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Professional Labor Markets and Occupations

    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:nbr:nberwo:24215. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    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.