Trading Professors: Re-Creating Markets for Tenured Faculty

Abstract:     
We argue that tenure leads to a virtual closure of active markets for tenured faculty; if tenured professors cannot be fired, this generally means that they cannot also move to another academic position. This market closure creates institutional rigidity and reduces faculty incentives. As a solution to these problems, we propose re-creating markets for tenured faculty by opening up a 'trade' in professors across departments within the same college, and across colleges.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 15

Keywords: Professor, academic, university, college, tenure, market, re-creating markets, football, baseball, trade, trading players, flexibility, rigidity, mobility, labor markets, hiring

JEL Classification: J00, J01, J24, J44, J60, J62, I23, L31, L83

working papers series