EclectEcon

Economics and the mid-life crisis have much in common: Both dwell on foregone opportunities

C'est la vie; c'est la guerre; c'est la pomme de terre                                     A View from/of the Econochasm by John Palmer

Richard Posner deserves the next Nobel Prize in Economics
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How Much Do You Earn, Professor Palmer?
I am not telling. But here are some median professor salaries, by discipline, courtesy of Newmark's Door.

The columns probably won't line up. They are:

Discipline . . . Full prof . . . Assoc Prof . . . Asst Prof . . . New Asst Prof . . . Instructor

Biological and Biomedical Sciences . . .86,612 $62,677 $52,510 $52,275 $41,103
Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services $98,384 $82,347 $75,835 $81,842 $51,939
Communication, Journalism and Related Programs $77,307 $59,549 $50,027 $48,637 $41,230

...

English Language and Literature/Letters $74,040 $57,598 $47,724 $47,357 $37,573
English Language and Literature/Letters: General $73,693 $56,868 $47,405 $47,006 $37,612
Family and Consumer Sciences/Human Sciences $78,255 $61,948 $51,238 $50,869 $40,320

...

Social Sciences $81,501 $63,008 $52,826 $52,619 $42,019
Social Sciences: Political Science & Government $79,648 $61,247 $50,207 $50,207 $41,591
Social Sciences: Sociology $78,061 $59,919 $49,935 $49,142 $39,817
Theology and Religious Vocations $66,706 $55,518 $47,310 $45,665 $39,732


The universities do a good job of extracting rent from those who have low opportunity costs (i.e. are not, on average, much good for anything else?). No wonder others are jealous of the salaries earned in law, biz, and economics.

Phil Miller has his usual insightful comments about opportunity costs and professors' salaries here.

Scoop suggests contrasting economists' salaries with the salaries of those who declare a double major in theology and the arts.

Does anyone know why newly hired assistant profs in many fields are paid more than "assistant professors"? Surely that type of salary inversion cannot be good for morale or for retention of good faculty members.
Category: Economics Posted on Tuesday, April 24, 2007 at 1:26am
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steveSC (mail):
New assistant professors are paid more than 'old' assistant professors because new ones are the best and brightest of their cohort, while old ones are the least productive and least valuable of their cohort (using cohort to describe a graduating class). I believe the statement about new assistant professors is self-explanatory (or even if they aren't actually the best and brightest, those hiring them probably believe so). Regarding the 'old' assistant professors, they essentially have decaying value. As time goes on, if they meet the standards of the discipline, they will be promoted to associate professor. If they don't, they will remain a less and less valued assistant professor, with little bargaining power, and thus diminishing prospects for a raise.

Incidentally, the situation with associate professors is somewhat more complex, as in some fields the associate level is a 'terminal' position even when the person is performing valuable services, e.g., teaching.
4.24.2007 8:59am
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