Faculty Promotion in Academe: Theory and Evidence from U.S. Economics Departments

This study develops a vintage model of the tenure and academic promotion process within the American higher education system. In this process, one’s professional academic achievements and the characteristics of one’s university affiliation work to either increase or reduce the probability of being granted tenure and academic promotion. Aspects related to the academic promotion process developed within our vintage economic model are tested using data from 1,240 individual faculty affiliated with 175 different departments of economics in the United States. Probit estimates presented herein indicate that the number of academic publications is an important consideration for academic promotion across all types of university (institutional) settings, and that different academic generations, one holding PhDs minted prior to 2000 and the other holding PhDs minted after 1999, face different academic promotion practices within their particular institutional affiliations.

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