We use data from 2015–2016 to document faculty representation and wage gaps by race-ethnicity and gender in six fields at selective public universities. Consistent with widely available information, Black, Hispanic, and female professors are underrepresented and White and Asian professors are overrepresented in our data. Disadvantaged minority and female underrepresentation is driven predominantly by underrepresentation in science and math intensive fields. A comparison of senior and junior faculty suggests a trend toward greater diversity, especially in science and math intensive fields, because younger faculty are more diverse. However, Black faculty are an exception. We decompose racial-ethnic and gender wage gaps and show that academic field, experience, and research productivity account for most or all of the gaps. We find no evidence of wage premiums for individuals who improve diversity, although for Black faculty we cannot rule out a modest premium.

We estimate relative achievement effects of the four most commonly adopted elementary mathematics textbooks in the fall of 2008 and fall of 2009 in California. Our findings indicate that one book, Houghton Mifflin's California Math, is more effective than the other three, raising student achievement by 0.05 to 0.08 student-level standard deviations of the Grade 3 state standardized math test. We also estimate positive effects of California Math relative to the other textbooks in higher elementary grades. The differential effect of California Math is educationally meaningful, particularly given that it is a schoolwide effect and can be had at what is effectively zero marginal cost.

In this short note we respond to Judson Laughter’s technical comment on our 2017 published article in Educational Researcher.

We study the effects of exposure to nonresident students on the outcomes of undergraduate in‐state students during a period of high nonresident enrollment growth at the University of Missouri‐Columbia. Our models leverage within‐major, cross‐time variation in nonresident exposure for identification. We find no evidence that increased exposure to domestic nonresidents affects in‐state student outcomes and our null results are precisely estimated. We find evidence of modest negative impacts on in‐state students when their exposure to foreign students increases using our preferred specification. However, the identifying variation in exposure to foreign students in our data is limited and this result is not robust in all of our models. (JEL I23, I28, R23)

This dissertation consists of three chapters. In Chapter 1, we use data from the 2015-16 academic year to document faculty representation and wage gaps by race/ethnicity and gender in six fields at 40 selective, public universities. Consistent with widely available information, black, Hispanic, and female professors are underrepresented and white and Asian professors are overrepresented in our data. We show that disadvantaged-minority and female underrepresentation is driven predominantly by underrepresentation in STEM fields. A comparison of senior and junior faculty suggests a trend toward greater diversity in academia along racial/ethnic and gender lines, especially in STEM fields, because younger faculty are more diverse. However, black faculty are an exception; there is little indication that their representation is improving among young faculty. We decompose racial/ethnic and gender wage gaps and show that three observed factors account for most or all of the gaps: academic field, experience, and research productivity. We find no evidence of wage premiums for individuals who improve racial/ethnic and gender diversity, although for black faculty we cannot rule out a modest premium. In Chapter 2, I use student-level administrative data from a state flagship university to study the effect of changes in non-resident enrollment on in-state student outcomes. I leverage within-major and cross-time variation in non-resident enrollment using a differences-in-differences framework. I find no evidence of negative effects of non-resident enrollment growth on third-year persistence or performance outcomes for in-state students. Moreover, there is no effect heterogeneity by in-state student gender or race. There is some evidence of effect heterogeneity when I split total non-resident enrollment into (a) out-of-state domestic enrollment and (b) foreign enrollment. Specifically, the results reveal no adverse effects of out-of-state domestic enrollment growth on in-state students for any outcome measure. However, although it is modest in magnitude, there is some evidence that increasing foreign enrollment has negative effects on the postsecondary persistence of in-state students. In Chapter 3, I construct an 11-year data panel of academic departments at a state flagship university to study the relationship between changes in student demand for majors and investment in faculty resources. Larger numbers of freshmen declaring a major, and large numbers of bachelor's degrees conferred, are both associated with more faculty and more salary expenditures on faculty. However, using various specifications of growth, I find no evidence that growth in student demand for majors is associated with growth in faculty, or faculty salary expenditures.