IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecoedu/v84y2021ics027277572100087x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are U.S. teacher salaries competitive? Accounting for geography and the retransformation bias in logarithmic regressions

Author

Listed:
  • Blackburn, McKinley L.

Abstract

Using data from the American Community Survey for 2012-2016, I estimate relative earnings differentials between teachers and observationally equivalent non-teachers. Two concerns at primary issue in the paper are adequately controlling for differing geographic locations of teachers and non-teachers, and addressing the bias that can arise in the use of logarithmic specifications of earnings regressions to estimate average wage differentials. I find that both issues are of relevance: while ignoring disparate location biases the differential away from zero, failing to account fully for differences in the distribution of earnings for teachers and non-teachers biases it towards zero. An analysis of data from the 2007-2011 American Community Survey suggests that that the magnitude of the teacher pay differential has increased since that time. Other suggested corrections, based on earlier research on differential time misreporting and benefit differences, lead to a smaller but still economically significant differential.

Suggested Citation

  • Blackburn, McKinley L., 2021. "Are U.S. teacher salaries competitive? Accounting for geography and the retransformation bias in logarithmic regressions," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:84:y:2021:i:c:s027277572100087x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2021.102169
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027277572100087X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econedurev.2021.102169?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hendricks, Matthew D., 2014. "Does it pay to pay teachers more? Evidence from Texas," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 50-63.
    2. Enrico Moretti, 2013. "Real Wage Inequality," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 65-103, January.
    3. Milla Sanes & John Schmitt, 2014. "Regulation of Public Sector Collective Bargaining in the States," CEPR Reports and Issue Briefs 2014-05, Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR).
    4. Sean P. Corcoran & William N. Evans & Robert M. Schwab, 2004. "Changing Labor-Market Opportunities for Women and the Quality of Teachers, 1957-2000," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(2), pages 230-235, May.
    5. Fox, Daniel & Gmeiner, Michael & Price, Joseph, 2019. "The gender gap in K-12 educator salaries," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 23-26.
    6. Michael R Ransom & David P. Sims, 2010. "Estimating the Firm's Labor Supply Curve in a "New Monopsony" Framework: Schoolteachers in Missouri," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(2), pages 331-355, April.
    7. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn, 2017. "The Gender Wage Gap: Extent, Trends, and Explanations," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(3), pages 789-865, September.
    8. Kristine L. West, 2014. "New Measures of TeachersÕ Work Hours and Implications for Wage Comparisons," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 9(3), pages 231-263, July.
    9. Michael Podgursky & Ruttaya Tongrut, 2006. "(Mis-)Measuring the Relative Pay of Public School Teachers," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 1(4), pages 425-440, September.
    10. Abadie, Alberto & Imbens, Guido W., 2011. "Bias-Corrected Matching Estimators for Average Treatment Effects," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 29(1), pages 1-11.
    11. Eric J. Brunner & Andrew Ju, 2019. "State Collective Bargaining Laws and Public-Sector Pay," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 72(2), pages 480-508, March.
    12. Maury Gittleman & Brooks Pierce, 2012. "Compensation for State and Local Government Workers," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 26(1), pages 217-242, Winter.
    13. White, Halbert, 1982. "Maximum Likelihood Estimation of Misspecified Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(1), pages 1-25, January.
    14. Stoddard, Christiana, 2005. "Adjusting teacher salaries for the cost of living: the effect on salary comparisons and policy conclusions," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 323-339, June.
    15. Blackburn, McKinley L., 2007. "Estimating wage differentials without logarithms," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 73-98, January.
    16. Giles, David E. A., 1982. "The interpretation of dummy variables in semilogarithmic equations : Unbiased estimation," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 10(1-2), pages 77-79.
    17. Barry T. Hirsch & Edward J. Schumacher, 2004. "Match Bias in Wage Gap Estimates Due to Earnings Imputation," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 22(3), pages 689-722, July.
    18. Michele Campolieti, 2018. "Matching and Inverse Propensity Weighting Estimates of the Union Wage Premium: Evidence from Canada, 1997–2014," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(1), pages 101-130, January.
    19. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, December.
    20. Maria Donovan Fitzpatrick, 2015. "How Much Are Public School Teachers Willing to Pay for Their Retirement Benefits?," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 7(4), pages 165-188, November.
    21. Britton, Jack & Propper, Carol, 2016. "Teacher pay and school productivity: Exploiting wage regulation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 75-89.
    22. Kennedy, Peter E, 1981. "Estimation with Correctly Interpreted Dummy Variables in Semilogarithmic Equations [The Interpretation of Dummy Variables in Semilogarithmic Equations]," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(4), pages 801-801, September.
    23. Barry T. Hirsch & Edward J. Schumacher, 2012. "Underpaid or Overpaid? Wage Analysis for Nurses Using Job and Worker Attributes," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 78(4), pages 1096-1119, April.
    24. Taylor, Lori L., 2008. "Comparing teacher salaries: Insights from the U.S. census," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 48-57, February.
    25. Congressional Budget Office, 2017. "Comparing the Compensation of Federal and Private-Sector Employees, 2011 to 2015," Reports 52637, Congressional Budget Office.
    26. Manning, Willard G., 1998. "The logged dependent variable, heteroscedasticity, and the retransformation problem," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 283-295, June.
    27. Ai, Chunrong & Norton, Edward C., 2000. "Standard errors for the retransformation problem with heteroscedasticity," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 697-718, September.
    28. Justin R. Falk, 2015. "Comparing Federal And Private-Sector Wages Without Logs," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 33(1), pages 176-189, January.
    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. Barry T. Hirsch & Edward J. Schumacher, 2012. "Underpaid or Overpaid? Wage Analysis for Nurses Using Job and Worker Attributes," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 78(4), pages 1096-1119, April.
    2. Blackburn, McKinley L., 2007. "Estimating wage differentials without logarithms," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 73-98, January.
    3. Justin Falk & Nadia Karamcheva, 2018. "Comparing the Effects of Current Pay and Defined Benefit Pensions on Employee Retention: Working Paper 2018-06," Working Papers 54056, Congressional Budget Office.
    4. Andrew Chamberlain, 2015. "Are State Workers Overpaid? Survey Evidence from Liquor Privatization in Washington State," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 36(4), pages 347-388, December.
    5. John T. Addison & Christopher J. Surfield, 2007. "Atypical Work and Pay," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 73(4), pages 1038-1065, April.
    6. Johnston, Andrew C., 2021. "Preferences, Selection, and the Structure of Teacher Pay," IZA Discussion Papers 14831, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Greaves, Ellen & Sibieta, Luke, 2019. "Constrained optimisation? Teacher salaries, school resources and student achievement," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    8. Winkelmann Rainer, 2001. "Zur korrekten Interpretation der Ergebnisse einer log-linearen Regression bei Heteroskedastie. Eine methodische Untersuchung mit einer Anwendung auf die relativen Löhne von Ausländern / Correctly Inte," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 221(4), pages 418-431, August.
    9. Hirsch, Barry & Manzella, Julia, 2014. "Who Cares – and Does It Matter? Measuring Wage Penalties for Caring Work," IZA Discussion Papers 8388, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Mizala, Alejandra & Ñopo, Hugo, 2016. "Measuring the relative pay of school teachers in Latin America 1997–2007," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 20-32.
    11. Bouët, Antoine & Elbehri, Aziz & Nguyen, Duc Bao & Traoré, Fousseini, 2022. "Measuring Agricultural Trade Integration in Southeast Asia," Journal of Economic Integration, Center for Economic Integration, Sejong University, vol. 37(2), pages 235-266.
    12. Markus Nagler & Marc Piopiunik & Martin R. West, 2020. "Weak Markets, Strong Teachers: Recession at Career Start and Teacher Effectiveness," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 38(2), pages 453-500.
    13. Ganghua Mei & Lei Yue, 2022. "Labor supply and time use: evidence from cohabiting women in the United States," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(44), pages 5133-5158, September.
    14. Michael O'Donnell & Robert P. Berrens, 2018. "Understanding Falling Municipal Water Demand in a Small City Dependent on the Declining Ogallala Aquifer: Case Study of Clovis, New Mexico," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 4(04), pages 1-40, October.
    15. Richard H. Spady & Sami Stouli, 2018. "Simultaneous Mean-Variance Regression," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 18/697, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
    16. Jones, A.M, 2010. "Models For Health Care," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 10/01, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    17. Barigozzi, Francesca & Parasnis, Jaai & Tani, Massimiliano, 2022. "Gender, Motivation, and Self-Selection into Teaching," IZA Discussion Papers 15532, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Qunyong Wang & Zhongwu Li & Xueliang Feng, 2019. "Does the Happiness of Contemporary Women in China Depend on Their Husbands’ Achievements?," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 40(4), pages 710-728, December.
    19. Farid Farrokhi, 2019. "Skill, Agglomeration, and Inequality in the Spatial Economy," 2019 Meeting Papers 357, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    20. Ahlheim, Michael & Frör, Oliver & Langenberger, Gerhard & Pelz, Sonna, 2014. "Chinese urbanites and the preservation of rare species in remote parts of the country: the example of eaglewood," MPRA Paper 62897, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 11 Dec 2014.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Teacher pay; Wage differentials; Quasi-maximum likelihood estimation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education

    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:eee:ecoedu:v:84:y:2021:i:c:s027277572100087x. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/econedurev .

    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.