Monopsony Power in Higher Education: A Tale of Two Tracks

A-Tier
Journal: Journal of Labor Economics
Year: 2023
Volume: 41
Issue: S1
Pages: S257 - S290

Authors (2)

Austan Goolsbee (not in RePEc) Chad Syverson (University of Chicago)

Score contribution per author:

2.011 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 2.0x A-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

This paper measures the degree of monopsony power in the US higher-education labor market by using school-specific labor demand instruments to directly estimate the residual labor supply curves facing individual universities. The results indicate that schools have significant monopsony power over tenure-track faculty but face perfectly elastic residual labor supply curves for non-tenure-track faculty. There is some evidence for three sources of monopsony power often discussed in the literature—employer concentration, search frictions/job-switching costs, and differentiated jobs. The results also suggest that monopsony over tenure-track faculty may have contributed to the trend toward hiring more non-tenure-track faculty.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:ucp:jlabec:doi:10.1086/726720
Journal Field
Labor
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-29