Hanushek, Eric A., John F. Kain, and Steven G. Rivkin. 2004. "Why Public Schools Lose Teachers." Journal of Human Resources 39(2): 326-354.

Many school districts experience difficulties attracting and retaining teachers, and the impending retirement of a substantial fraction of public school teachers raises the specter of sever shortages in some public schools. Schools in urban areas serving economically disadvantaged and minority students appear particularly vulnerable. This paper investigates those factors that affect the probabilities that teachers switch schools or exit the public schools entirely. The results indicate that teacher mobility is much more strongly related to characteristics of the students, particularly race and achievement, than to salary, although salary exerts a modest impact once compensating differentials are taken into account.

Eric A. Hanushek is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, a research economist at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and chair of the Executive Board of the Texas Schools Project at University of Texas at Dallas. John Kain was a professor of economics at the University of Texas at Dallas. Steven G. Rivkin is a professor of economics at Amherst College, a research associate National Bureau of Economic Research, and associate director of research for the Texas Schools Project at University of Texas at Dallas, respectively. While John Kain fully participated in the production of this research, sadly, he died before its publication. This research has been supported by the Packard Humanities Institute and the Smith Richardson Foundation. Because of confidentiality limitations of the State of Texas, these data are not currently available to other researchers. Nonetheless, interested researchers should contact the authors, since there are ongoing efforts to open access to the data.