Internal markets for department chairs: Comparative advantage, life-cycle, and jury duty

Abstract

We examine the internal market for department chairs in U.S. universities and provide the first empirical evidence concerning the determinants of departmental chair service using data from the economics departments in eight large public universities. The results reveal the wage premium for chairs increases with length of service and continues for an extended period thereafter. The chair premium largely represents compensation for foregone research and the attendant atrophy of research skills. The empirical results also indicate that departments tend to choose productive scholars to serve as chair, but avoid putting their most productive scholars in that position unless they are past their peak productivity period in their life-cycle. 0

Do Economics Departments Improve after They Appoint a Top Scholar as Chairperson?

“…It is not unusual for senior administrators to select Chairs who have either undergone a decline in research productivity or made fewer research‐specific investments over their careers (McDowell, Singell & Stater, ; McDowell, Singell & Stater, ), although it is less common in Tier 1 research universities that assign greater weight to the research productivity of potential departmental Chairs (Moore, Newman, & Turnbull. ; Ness & Samet, , Ehrenberg, ).…”

On (And Off) the Hot Seat: An Analysis of Entry into and Out of University Administration

“…If he or she enters, the wage increases to wa and grows at the rate h for the term of service, grows at the rate rj after the term ends until time tj> and then drops down to the wage located on the lowest line in the figure. After that, the wage grows at the rate g until the time of retirement tr2 If, instead, the economist decides not to enter administration at time td, the wage grows from the value wd at the rate g for the rest of his or her career until the time of retirement tr.3 Becoming chair at time td is thus preferred to not entering at that time if and only if the areas la-1 The assumption of slow but positive wage growth after the term of service is consistent with the finding that it takes up to a decade for the wage gain from administration to completely erode (Moore et al 2003;Saks 1977) . We also investigated the case where the wage differential continuously erodes until the post-administration wage profile meets the regular faculty profile, which yielded the prediction that knowledge depreciation has non-linear effects on both entry and exit.…”

“…The higher wages of department heads are a compensating differential not only for a task deemed as secondary by many academics, but for the depreciation of research skills and lower future wage growth that results from time spent in an administrative position (e.g., see Moore, Newman, and Turnbull 2003). Goodwin and Sauer (1995) and Ragan and Rehman (1996) both found that there is a substantial decline in research productivity during and after a term of service as department chair.…”

“…Department chairs are essential to the academic enterprise because they manage the daily academic operations of the institution, coordinate and work with higher-level administrators, and to a large extent form the pool from which upper-level administrators are drawn (Pfeffer and Davis-Blake 1992;Moore, Newman, and Turnbull 2003) . Career timing of entry and exit from leadership is important because it affects the disciplinary expertise, institutional knowledge, and professional networks that an individual brings to and takes from the position, ultimately shaping leadership effectiveness and long-term organizational success (Rainey 2003).…”

“…Scholars long recognized of public the administration importance of have adlong recognized the importance of administrators in enabling public and nonprofit organizations to effectively fulfill their service missions, and they have extensively articulated the personality traits, managerial styles, and organizational knowledge that foster successful leadership in these organi-economics and the relationship of these decisions to the attainment of subsequent administrative positions. Department chairs are essential to the academic enterprise because they manage the daily academic operations of the institution, coordinate and work with higher-level administrators, and to a large extent form the pool from which upper-level administrators are drawn (Pfeffer and Davis-Blake 1992;Moore, Newman, and Turnbull 2003) . Career timing of entry and exit from leadership is important because it affects the disciplinary expertise, institutional knowledge, and professional networks that an individual brings to and takes from the position, ultimately shaping leadership effectiveness and long-term organizational success (Rainey 2003).…”