ABSTRACT
One of the points that have led me to cite Lucien Karpik’s economics of quality (1989) in characterizing academic hiring is the separation between the candidate judgment and selection processes as described in the preceding chapters-i.e., the processes by which supply and demand adjust to each another-and the price-determining processes that occur after the candidate has been chosen. These two phases are quite distinct, especially in that they involve different actors. Candidates are judged fi rst by way of their applications, later in situ, and the judges are recruiter peers. But once we move to what I will call pricing, hiring committees recede behind university offi cials and/or administrative services-these are the actors who handle price negotiations with the candidate. The fact that the price determination phase is confi ned to a smaller, more discreet social space also represents a difference from the preceding stage: Though application examination and candidate selection are not perfectly transparent, that phase does unfold in front of others and is to some degree public.
