IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp17696.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Gains from Alternative Assignment? Evidence from a Two-Sided Teacher Market

Author

Listed:
  • Laverde, Mariana

    (Boston College)

  • Mykerezi, Elton

    (University of Minnesota)

  • Sojourner, Aaron

    (Upjohn Institute for Employment Research)

  • Sood, Aradhya

    (University of Toronto)

Abstract

The literature on assignment mechanisms largely focuses on efficiency based on agents' preferences, though policymakers may prioritize different goals. In assigning teachers to classrooms, a school district might prioritize student learning but must also consider teacher welfare. This paper studies the potential gains in student test scores from alternative within-district assignments of teachers to classrooms, using novel administrative data on teacher and school principal decisions from the district's internal transfer system (ITS) and student test scores under the observed assignments. To credibly predict student test scores under unrealized assignments, we jointly model student achievement and teacher and principal decisions, accounting for potential selection of teachers on test score gains. We estimate the variation in teachers' comparative advantage in producing learning to be one-ninth the magnitude of the variation in their general effectiveness. Further, teachers dislike comparative advantage–based assignments. Assignment of teachers to classrooms to maximize learning under the constraint of not reducing any assigned teacher's welfare would raise the average test score by 7% of a standard deviation (SD) relative to that under the observed assignment, with this effect driven mostly by assignment of teachers with higher general effectiveness to larger classrooms rather than by harnessing teachers' comparative advantage.

Suggested Citation

  • Laverde, Mariana & Mykerezi, Elton & Sojourner, Aaron & Sood, Aradhya, 2025. "Gains from Alternative Assignment? Evidence from a Two-Sided Teacher Market," IZA Discussion Papers 17696, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
  • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17696
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp17696.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Raj Chetty & Nathaniel Hendren, 2018. "The Impacts of Neighborhoods on Intergenerational Mobility I: Childhood Exposure Effects," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 133(3), pages 1107-1162.
    2. YingHua He & Shruti Sinha & Xiaoting Sun, 2024. "Identification and Estimation in Many‐to‐One Two‐Sided Matching Without Transfers," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 92(3), pages 749-774, May.
    3. Matteo Bobba & Tim Ederer & Gianmarco León-Ciliotta & Christopher A. Neilson & Marco Nieddu, 2021. "Teacher compensation and structural inequality: Evidence from centralized teacher school choice in Perú," Economics Working Papers 1788, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    4. Esteban Aucejo & Patrick Coate & Jane Cooley Fruehwirth & Sean Kelly & Zachary Mozenter, 2022. "Teacher Effectiveness and Classroom Composition: Understanding Match Effects in the Classroom," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(648), pages 3047-3064.
    5. Mariana Laverde, 2022. "Distance to Schools and Equal Access in School Choice Systems," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 1046, Boston College Department of Economics, revised 15 Jun 2024.
    6. Bo Cowgill & Jonathan M. V. Davis & B. Pablo Montagnes & Patryk Perkowski, 2025. "Stable Matching on the Job? Theory and Evidence on Internal Talent Markets," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 71(3), pages 2508-2526, March.
    7. John Geweke & Gautam Gowrisankaran & Robert J. Town, 2003. "Bayesian Inference for Hospital Quality in a Selection Model," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(4), pages 1215-1238, July.
    8. Condie, Scott & Lefgren, Lars & Sims, David, 2014. "Teacher heterogeneity, value-added and education policy," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 76-92.
    9. Hinrichs, Peter, 2021. "What kind of teachers are schools looking for? Evidence from a randomized field experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 186(C), pages 395-411.
    10. Prendergast, Canice & Topel, Robert H, 1996. "Favoritism in Organizations," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(5), pages 958-978, October.
    11. Julien Combe & Olivier Tercieux & Camille Terrier, 2022. "The Design of Teacher Assignment: Theory and Evidence," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 89(6), pages 3154-3222.
    12. Alessandra Fenizia, 2022. "Managers and Productivity in the Public Sector," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 90(3), pages 1063-1084, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mariana Laverde & Elton Mykerezi & Aaron Sojourner & Aradhya Sood, 2023. "Gains from Reassignment: Evidence from A Two-Sided Teacher Market," Upjohn Working Papers 23-392, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    2. Michael Bates & Michael Dinerstein & Andrew C. Johnston & Isaac Sorkin, 2022. "Teacher Labor Market Equilibrium and Student Achievement," CESifo Working Paper Series 9551, CESifo.
    3. Bär, Marlies & Bakx, Pieter & Wouterse, Bram & van Doorslaer, Eddy, 2022. "Estimating the health value added by nursing homes," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 1-23.
    4. Bar, M.; & Bakx, P.; & Wouterse, B.; & van Doorslaer, Eddy.;, 2022. "Estimating the health value added by nursing homes," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 22/12, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    5. Amanda Dahlstrand, 2022. "Defying distance? The provision of services in the digital age," CEP Discussion Papers dp1889, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    6. Dahlstrand Rudin, Amanda, 2022. "Defying distance? The provision of services in the digital age," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118042, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Hausman, Catherine & Stolper, Samuel, 2021. "Inequality, information failures, and air pollution," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    8. Francesco Andreoli & Eugenio Peluso, 2016. "So close yet so unequal: Reconsidering spatial inequality in U.S. cities," Working Papers 21/2016, University of Verona, Department of Economics.
    9. Baltagi, Badi H. & Yen, Yin-Fang, 2014. "Hospital treatment rates and spillover effects: Does ownership matter?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 193-202.
    10. Michael Geruso & Timothy J. Layton & Jacob Wallace, 2023. "What Difference Does a Health Plan Make? Evidence from Random Plan Assignment in Medicaid," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(3), pages 341-379, July.
    11. Jungmin Lee, 2008. "Outlier Aversion in Subjective Evaluation," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 9(2), pages 141-159, April.
    12. Shuo Liu & Dimitri Migrow, 2019. "Designing organizations in volatile markets," ECON - Working Papers 319, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
    13. Alex Bell & Raj Chetty & Xavier Jaravel & Neviana Petkova & John Van Reenen, 2019. "Who Becomes an Inventor in America? The Importance of Exposure to Innovation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(2), pages 647-713.
    14. Chong Lu, 2022. "The effect of migration on rural residents’ intergenerational subjective social status mobility in China," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 56(5), pages 3279-3308, October.
    15. Stacy, Brian, 2014. "Ranking Teachers when Teacher Value-Added is Heterogeneous Across Students," EconStor Preprints 104743, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    16. John Gathergood & Fabian Gunzinger & Benedict Guttman-Kenney & Edika Quispe-Torreblanca & Neil Stewart, 2020. "Levelling Down and the COVID-19 Lockdowns: Uneven Regional Recovery in UK Consumer Spending," Papers 2012.09336, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2020.
    17. Georgy Egorov & Konstantin Sonin, 2011. "Dictators And Their Viziers: Endogenizing The Loyalty–Competence Trade‐Off," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 9(5), pages 903-930, October.
    18. Dodin, Majed & Findeisen, Sebastian & Henkel, Lukas & Sachs, Dominik & Schüle, Paul, 2024. "Social mobility in Germany," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    19. Kalra, Aarushi, 2021. "A 'Ghetto' of One's Own: Communal Violence, Residential Segregation and Group Education Outcomes in India," SocArXiv rzjct, Center for Open Science.
    20. Filip Gesiarz & Jan-Emmanuel De Neve & Tali Sharot, 2020. "The motivational cost of inequality: Opportunity gaps reduce the willingness to work," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(9), pages 1-18, September.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17696. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.