Age discrimination and academic labor markets

In a sample of Canadian Ph.D.’s, Warman and Worswick (2010) report that forty-two percent obtained their degree at thirty-four years of age or older. One implication is that those starting their academic career vary in age. As a result, academic labor markets provide a somewhat unique way to investigate the outcomes of workers of different age with similar work experience. This study uses a national sample of over 9,000 faculty to look at the relationship between age at the time a person earns their degree and income. Older individuals are less likely to attend graduate programs in Carnegie Research I institutions, and they are less likely to find employment at a Research I institution. Males are less likely to obtain employment at Carnegie research or doctoral granting institutions even if they attended a graduate program in a Research I institutions. Regression analysis reveals a negative relationship between age at time of degree and earnings. The age penalty is largest for those with the title of professor working at Carnegie research/doctoral institutions. The size of the age penalty for females is less dependent on this distinction. Lastly, the age penalty is evident at the start careers as older faculty are found to learn less in the first three years of obtaining their degree

Setting an Agenda for the Future

Anniversaries are a time for reflection and planning for the future. The fiftieth year of the Journal of Economic Education motivated us to invite those who have been intimately involved with the Journal to provide reflections, which appear within this symposium. In addition to providing a wealth of information about the past, they set the stage for initiatives that support the path forward

Views of Teaching and Research in Economics and Other Disciplines

Anecdotes are often quite suggestive. A graduate student in economics who was serving as a teaching assistant once reported that his major professor came into his office and told him that he was spending too much of his time helping his undergraduate students and not enough time on his research. Was the professor expressing a preference for time spent on teaching over research? Or was the professor suggesting to the student that the academic market rewards research more than teaching? Regardless, the underlying message that gets transferred from such an experience, as early as graduate education and perhaps throughout a career, is that teaching is not as important or valuable as research. Such strong conclusions, however, should not be based on anecdotal evidence. Whether economics professors are less interested in teaching and more interested in research is an empirical question worthy of study. Although teaching and research choices made by economics faculty members reflect both preferences and choice sets, in this study we focus on preferences and use a national survey to compare the teaching and research views of economists with faculty members in other major disciplines

The Match between CEO and Firm

We investigate the role of job-match heterogeneity in the CEO labor market. We document a high percentage of CEO turnovers in the early years of tenure as illustrated by the hazard that increases until the fifth year of CEO tenure and then decreases. Evidence suggests that a good match is more likely if the new CEO performs better than the previous CEO. The best matches tend to occur when inside (outside) CEOs follow previous CEOs who quit (are dismissed). Evidence consistent with match theory in the CEO labor market suggests factors that influence the likelihood of observing a good match

The Effect of CEO Tenure on the Relation between Firm Performance and Turnover

We analyze the effect of CEO tenure on the relation between firm performance and forced turnover. We find that the performance-forced turnover relation is conditional on CEO tenure. Our results suggest a constant negative relation between firm performance and forced turnover throughout an inside CEO’s tenure. Founders are entrenched early in their careers but held accountable for firm performance later in their careers. We find evidence that outside hires experience a probationary period, followed by a period of apparent entrenchment during their intermediate years that weakens later in their tenure

The Role of Teaching and Teacher Training in the Hiring and Promotion of Ph.D. Economists

Surveys suggest that a majority of graduate students seek academic positions after completing their degree. We survey groups involved in the job market to determine the roles of teaching and research in hiring and the subsequent success of new faculty. We find that while characteristics that signal research potential are highly valued by both graduate directors and department chairs, there are significant discrepancies in the extent that teaching is valued in the hiring process across institution types. Furthermore, although new faculty devote half of their time to teaching, only half of them agree that graduate school prepared them to teach

Teacher Training for PhD Students and New Faculty in Economics

Past studies suggest that a majority of economics graduate students engage in teaching-related activities during graduate school and many go on to academic positions afterwards. However, not all graduate students are formally prepared to teach while in graduate school nor are they fully prepared to teach in their first academic position. The authors characterize current teaching experience and training of graduate students from the point of view of directors of graduate studies and of newly minted academic economists. The authors also query department chairs and new faculty about teacher training, support available for new faculty, and the degree to which newly hired Ph.D. economists are prepared to teach. Findings indicate that while some training is available, there is room for enhancing teacher training in economics