Volume 37, Number 1 (Winter) 2002
Stinebrickner, Todd. 2002. "An Analysis of Occupational Change and Departures from the Labor Force: Evidence of the reasons Teachers Quit." Journal of Human Resources 37(1):192-216.
This paper examines both the timing of exits from the teaching profession and the reasons for these exits. Approximately 67 percent of exiting female teachers leave the work force altogether. The presence of a newborn child is the single most important determinant of exits for females. The paper discusses why studies of quit behavior that simply include a person's total number of children may fail to capture the true importance of fertility behavior on a female's quit decision. It also examines the return rates of departing teachers and compares the exit behavior of teachers to that of nonteachers.
Todd R. Stinebrickner is a professor of economics at the Social Science Centre. University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 5C2: trstineb@julian.uwo.ca . He thanks John Bound, Bob Willis, Kathy Hayes, Susanna Loeb, Christopher Swann, and participants at the Institute for Social Research and the 1997 Southern Economic Association Meetings for useful comments. The author also appreciates the warm hospitality he received at the Osceola Research Institute. The data used in this article can be obtained from the author from May 2002 to April 2005.
© 2003 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
US ISSN 0022-166X