Through a survey of faculty members from 21 top research universities in China, this study analyzes the impact of the tenure reform on faculty members' job insecurity and innovative work behavior in research. The results indicate a negative relationship between the tenure-track system and faculty's innovative work behavior in terms of trying new…

Most teachers have tenure protections that constrain dismissal. Some argue that tenure improves recruitment and retention by mitigating the risk of monopsony employment and substituting job security for lower salaries. Others argue that tenure reduces performance incentives making it difficult to dismiss ineffective teachers. We examine…

This dissertation consists of two chapters at the intersection of labor and the economics of education. In Chapter 1, I examine the role of management in the public sector, focusing on school principals and how they impact student outcomes. I find that a one standard-deviation increase in principal quality raises average student achievement by…

Temporary contracts are increasingly used in academia. This is a major concern for non-tenured researchers, since weak job security may hamper job satisfaction. This paper presents an empirical analysis of the role of academic tenure for job satisfaction of researchers in European countries. The work uses data from the MORE2 survey, a large-scale…

Faculty members play a crucial role in higher education, contributing to knowledge dissemination and offering solutions to societal issues. However, policymakers often view higher education as an industry and overlook the consequences of funding cuts, neglecting the faculty's role in student success and institutional mission. Temporary faculty…

This dissertation is comprised of three essays, each examining a different topic in labor economics. In Chapter 1, I examine the productivity and selection effects of K-12 teacher tenure by leveraging variation from New Jersey's TEACHNJ Act. This law extended the pre-tenure period from three to four years and allowed districts to dismiss…

The dual labor market theory (DLM) posited the existence of two distinct labor markets working in parallel. A primary one is a place where high wages, employment stability and high opportunities for advancement are the norms. On the other hand, low wages, arbitrariness and less desirable working conditions determine a secondary market. The main…

The conferment of tenure at a United States university provides substantial job security to its recipients. Tenure is designed to allow a professor the ability to explore new and risky research questions without fear of losing their position due to lack of publications. At the same time, this policy creates an incentive system with an ambiguous…

As higher education emerges from COVID-19 restrictions, the post-pandemic transitional moment provides Catholic institutions the opportunity to reconsider their reliance on adjuncts in core curricula. As tenure-track positions decline nationwide and universities increasingly source out coursework to temporary or part-time adjuncts and other…

This study draws upon motivation theories and identifies the motivations of Chinese scholars with regard to publishing articles in international journals and how their motivations influence the research output of Chinese universities. Drawing on 25 in-depth interviews with academics currently working in two Chinese universities, the findings,…