Abstract
I test for gender differences in faculty salaries for the academic year 1987–1988, using a basic sample of 560 higher education institutions. The ratios of female faculty pay to male faculty pay are regressed on a reduced-form equation for implicit marginal productivity ratios and rate of departure ratios. Marginal productivities depend on faculty and administrative inputs and proxies for technology. Rate of departure ratios depend on various institutional characteristics, such as size, unionization, administrative intensity, Carnegie Foundation classification, type of ownership, and degree of faculty tenured. The results indicate that, after adjusting actual pay ratios for implicit marginal productivity ratios, female faculty pay is at least as high as male faculty pay for much of the sample (74 percent).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Atkinson, Scott E., and Robert Halvorsen. “The Relative Efficiency of Public and Private Firms in a Regulated Environment: The Case of U.S. Electric Utilities.” Journal of Public Economics 29 (April 1986): 281–94.
Barbezat, Debra A. “Salary Differentials by Sex in the Academic Labor Market.” Journal of Human Resources 22 (Summer 1987): 421–28.
Bhattacharyya, Aarunava, Elliott Parker, and Kambiz Raffiee. “An Examination of the Effect of Ownership on the Relative Efficiency of Public and Private Water Utilities.” Land Economics 70 (May 1994): 197–209.
Blinder, Alan S. “Wage Discrimination: Reduced Form and Structural Estimates.” Journal of Human Resources 18 (Fall 1973): 436–55.
Broder, Ivy E. “Professional Achievements and Gender Differences Among Academic Economists.” Economic Inquiry 31 (January 1993): 116–27.
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. A Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1987.
Cohn, Elchanan, L. W. Rhine, and Maria C. Santos. “Institutions of Higher Education as Multi-Product Firms: Economies of Scale and Scope.” Review of Economics and Statistics 71 (May 1989): 284–90.
de Groot, Hans, Walter W. McMahon, and J. Fredericks Volkwein. “The Cost Structure of American Research Universities.” Review of Economics and Statistics 73 (August 1991): 424–31.
Douglas, Joel M., and Beth G. Cohen. Directory of Faculty Contracts and Bargaining Agents, Vol. 14, January 1988, The National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions, Baruch College, City University of New York.
Farber, Stephen. “The Earnings and Promotion of Women Faculty: Comment.” American Economic Review 67 (March 1977): 199–206.
Ferber, Marianne A., Jane W. Loeb, and Helen M. Lowry. “The Economic Status of Women Faculty: A Reappraisal.” Journal of Human Resources 13 (Summer 1978): 385–401.
Formby, John P., William D. Gunther, and Ryoichi Sakano. “Entry Level Salaries of Academic Economists: Does Gender or Age Matter?” Economic Inquiry 31 (January 1993): 128–38.
Gander, James P., and Anita M. Gander. “Institutional Factors in Female and Male Faculty Salaries: A Shadow-Price Approach.” Mimeographed paper. University of Utah, 1996.
Gordon, Nancy M., Thomas E. Morton, and Ina C. Braden. “Faculty Salaries: Is There Discrimination by Sex, Race, and Discipline?” American Economic Review 64 (June 1974): 419–27.
Hellerstein, Judith K., and David Neumark. “Are Earnings Profiles Steeper than Productivity Profiles?” Journal of Human Resources 30 (Winter 1995): 89–112.
Johnson, George E., and Frank P. Stafford. “The Earnings and Promotion of Women Faculty.” American Economic Review 64 (December 1974): 888–903.
—. “The Earnings and Promotion of Women Faculty: Reply.” American Economic Review 67 (March 1977): 214–17.
Kahn, Shulamit. “Gender Differences in Academic Career Paths of Economists.” American Economic Review 83 (May 1993): 52–56.
Katz, David A. “Faculty Salaries, Promotions, and Productivity at a Large University.” American Economic Review 63 (June 1973): 469–77.
Lindley, James T., Mary Fish, and John Jackson. “Gender Differences in Salaries: An Application to Academe.” Southern Economic Journal 59 (October 1992): 241–59.
Mincer, Jacob. Schooling, Experience and Earnings. New York: Columbia University Press, National Bureau of Economic Research, 1974.
Oaxaca, Ronald. “Male-Female Wage Differentials in Urban Labor Markets.” International Economic Review 14 (October 1973): 693–709.
Smith, Teresa L. “The Impact of University Faculty Unionization on the Male-Female Wage Differential.” Journal of Collective Negotiations in the Public Sector, 1992, 21(2), 101–10.
Strober, Myra H., and Aline O. Quester. “The Earnings and Promotion of Women Faculty: Comment.” American Economic Review 67 (March 1977): 207–13.
Toda, Yasushi. “Estimation of a Cost Function When the Cost Is Not Minimum: The Case of Soviet Manufacturing Industries, 1958-1971.” Review of Economics and Statistics 58 (August 1976): 259–68.
Tolbert, Pamela S. “Organizations and Inequality: Sources of Earnings Differences between Male and Female Faculty.” Sociology of Education 59 (October 1986): 227–36.
Weiler, William C. “Integrating Rank Differences into a Model of Male-Female Faculty Salary Discrimination.” Quarterly Review of Economics and Business 30 (Spring 1990): 3–15.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gander, J.P. Gender-based faculty-pay differences in academe: A reduced-form approach. J Labor Res 18, 451–461 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12122-997-1050-3
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12122-997-1050-3