Working Paper: NBER ID: w21827
Authors: Liang Zhang; Ronald G. Ehrenberg; Xiangmin Liu
Abstract: We use panel data models to examine variations and changes over time in faculty employment at four-year colleges and universities in the United States. The share of part-time faculty among total faculty has continued to grow over the last two decades, while the share of full-time lecturers and instructors has been relatively stable. Meanwhile, the share of non-tenure track faculty among faculty with professorial ranks has been growing. Dynamic panel data models suggest that employment levels of different types of faculty respond to a variety of economic and institutional factors. Colleges and universities have increasingly employed faculty whose salaries and benefits are relatively inexpensive; the slowly deteriorating financial situations at most colleges and universities have led to an increasing reliance on a contingent academic workforce.
Keywords: faculty employment; higher education; contingent faculty; panel data models
JEL Codes: I23; J23
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| higher salaries for professorial faculty (M52) | decrease in their employment (J63) |
| deteriorating financial situations at colleges and universities (I22) | increase in lower-cost faculty employment (M51) |
| presence of faculty unions (J58) | complex effects on job security for full-time non-tenure track faculty (J63) |
| presence of faculty unions (J58) | limit the growth of full-time teaching faculty (A29) |
| employment levels of part-time faculty (J49) | influence employment levels of full-time lecturers and professors (M51) |