Volume 30, Number 2 (Spring) 1995
Ballou, Dale, and Michael Podgursky. 1995. "Recruiting Smarter Teachers." Journal of Human Resources 30(2):326-338.
In recent years many states have raised teacher salaries to attract more capable teachers. Since teacher labor markets are typically in a state of excess supply, success of such policies is contingent on containing perverse feedbacks which arise among exit decisions, vacancy rates, and the willingness of prospective teachers to invest in occupation-specific human capital. Using SAT scores as a measure of ability, we find that an across-the-board raise produces modest improvements in the work force at best. Indeed, under plausible parameter values, it is possible for mean ability to decline.
The authors are professors of economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. They wish to acknowledge support from the Massachusetts Institute for Social and Economic Research and the University of Massachusetts Graduate School, and to thank Bob Costrell and Jim Wilson for useful comments. The usual disclaimers apply.
© 2002 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
US ISSN 0022-166X