Working Paper: NBER ID: w11970
Authors: Christiana Stoddard; Peter Kuhn
Abstract: Beyond some contracted minimum, salaried workers' hours are largely chosen at the worker's discretion and should respond to the strength of contract incentives. Accordingly, we consider the response of teacher hours to accountability and school choice laws introduced in U.S. public schools over the past two decades. Total weekly hours of full-time teachers have risen steadily since 1983 by about an hour, and after-school instructional hours have increased 34 percent since 1987. Average hours and the rate of increase also vary widely across states. However, after accounting for a common time trend in hours, we find no association between the introduction of accountability legislation and the change in teacher hours. We conjecture that the weak link between effort and compensation in most school reforms helps explain the lack of such an association.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: I21; I28; J22; J44; J45
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Demographic changes in teaching workforce (J21) | Teacher work hours (J22) |
| Erosion of union coverage (J50) | Teacher work hours (J22) |
| Education reforms (I28) | Student test scores (I21) |
| Accountability and school choice laws (I28) | Teacher work hours (J22) |
| Education reforms (I28) | Teacher work hours (J22) |