Paying the Professor: Sources of Salary Variation in Academic Labor Markets

Abstract

Using a set of 58 academic fields as distinct labor markets we examined the extent of wage variation within markets. The degree to which wages vary is an indicator of market efficiency and of whether a market wage exists. Holding constant differences in human capital, we found that the degree of wage variation in an academic labor market is negatively related to mobility within that market and positively related to the oversupply of labor We also found that as wage variation increases, male-female wage differentials also increase.