I got some great feedback in my defense. Apparently my writing style is too fast, if X then Y and if Y then Z - explain in detail X before jumping to Y! We know that you know XYZ, but explain it in the text! Don't assume that the reader knows the details of an obscure tax code reg!

Late to the thread - all of you are too kind!
Happy to discuss presidential compensation and incentives, Prof. Baker!

It took a village to make this high-risk, high-reward paper see the light of day - @jscottclayton.bsky.social's unfailing support and feedback, @alexeble.bsky.social's unswerving motivation, @conchaarriagada.bsky.social's detailed comments, the Econ of Ed PhD's support, and many others!

10/ These findings link leadership incentives to institutional performance, offering lessons for education policy, nonprofit governance, and tax design.
Takeaway - the institutional leadership's goals and incentives matter more than what you'd think.

9/ Experience matters! Presidents with prior higher ed experience outperform those from government or private sector roles, highlighting the value of specific experience in managing large, specialized organizations.

8/ Gender disparities worsened. Female presidents faced pay cuts twice as large as male counterparts (40% vs. 23%).

7/ The tax’s impact wasn’t just financial—it reshaped institutional priorities. Presidents shifted focus to visible financial metrics, boosting net income (+30%) & investment returns (+23%). But student aid suffered: financial aid fell 0.56% per 1% increase in their tax burden.

6/ Affected presidents were 19% more likely to exit, with exit risks rising for the highest-paid leaders.

5/ Presidential pay dropped by 26%, with cuts concentrated in non-taxable & "other" forms of compensation—not base salary or bonuses. These reductions happened within individual presidents, ruling out effects from new, lower-paid hires.

4/ A cornerstone of my paper is a new dataset of executive compensation from IRS filings + hand-collected data on presidents’ educational and professional backgrounds. This allows me to explore how characteristics like gender or experience shape responses to compensation shocks.

3/ The TCJA imposed a 21% excise tax on nonprofit pay above $1M, creating a unique opportunity to study how colleges & presidents adapt to higher governance costs. My event study design compares taxed leaders to those below the threshold. Key findings ahead 👇

2/ Leadership matters! In K-12, principal quality boosts achievement. In higher ed, leadership is even more critical: colleges average 162 instructors & 396 staff—akin to firms in the top 0.5% of U.S. businesses. But how do institutions leaders respond to financial incentives?