AbstractsEconomics

The focus of this paper will be to analyze the degree to which the California State University system possesses monoponistic power in the market for university professors. Using data on compensation, tuition, enrollment and employment numbers between the years of 2009 and 2014 as well as geographic data collected from ArchGIS, I compare professor wages to an estimate of their marginal revenue product. I then determine whether or not the distance between a given CSU and the nearest university competing for professors effects the difference between professors??? marginal revenue product and their wages. Should the CSU system possess monopsonist power in the market for professors, campuses closer to competing employers should have less market power than campuses in more isolated areas and therefore should have a lower difference between average professor wages and my estimated marginal revenue product of labor. Advisors/Committee Members: Kerr, Craig (advisor).