Teacher Compensation and Structural Inequality: Evidence from Centralized Teacher School Choice in Peru

Résumé

We exploit data on the universe of public-school teachers and students in Peru´ to establish that wage rigidity makes teachers choose schools based on non-pecuniary factors, magnifying the existing urban-rural gap in student achievement. Leveraging a reform in the teacher compensation structure, we provide causal evidence that increasing salaries in less desirable locations is effective at improving student learning by attracting higher-quality teachers. We then build and estimate a model of teacher sorting across schools and student achievement production, whereby teachers are heterogeneous in their preferences over non-wage attributes and their comparative advantages in teaching different student types. Counterfactual compensation policies that leverage information about teachers’ preferences and value-added can result in a substantially more efficient and equitable allocation by inducing teachers to sort based on their comparative advantage.

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Référence

Matteo Bobba, Tim Ederer, Gianmarco Leon-Ciliotta, Christopher Neilson et Marco Nieddu, « Teacher Compensation and Structural Inequality: Evidence from Centralized Teacher School Choice in Peru », TSE Working Paper, n° 21-1232, juillet 2021, révision mars 2024.