Changing Faculty Employment at Four-Year Colleges and Universities in the United States / Liang Zhang, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Xiangmin Liu.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Zhang, Liang.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Ehrenberg, Ronald G.

Liu, Xiangmin.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w21827.

NBER working paper series no. w21827

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2015.

Summary:

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.

Notes:

Print version record

December 2015.