In this paper, we use a simplified version of Jovanovich's model of job matching (1979) to set out a theory and test of an efficiency hypothesis for academic tenure and the process by which it is granted. Our approach argues that the granting and denial of tenure in a university environment arise as a response to the high cost of measuring the productivity of academic interaction and has survived as a low cost method by which the university can realign incentives to promote superior performance by departmental teams.
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