IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aejapp/v18y2026i3p83-114.html

Order Effects and Teacher Labor Supply: A Nationwide RCT in Ecuador

Author

Listed:
  • Nicolás Ajzenman
  • Gregory Elacqua
  • Luana Marotta
  • Anne Sofie Olsen

Abstract

We evaluate a nationwide zero-cost intervention to reduce teacher sorting, where lower-income students are more likely to attend understaffed schools with less qualified teachers. Our approach was grounded in an insight from behavioral economics known as order effects. In the treatment arm, the teacher job application plat-form showed hard-to-staff schools first, while, in the control group, schools were displayed alphabetically. Treated teachers were more likely to apply to hard-to-staff schools, ranking them their highest priority. Inattentive or less qualified teachers did not influence the results. The intervention helped to reduce the unequal distribution of qualified teachers across schools.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicolás Ajzenman & Gregory Elacqua & Luana Marotta & Anne Sofie Olsen, 2026. "Order Effects and Teacher Labor Supply: A Nationwide RCT in Ecuador," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 18(3), pages 83-114, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejapp:v:18:y:2026:i:3:p:83-114
    DOI: 10.1257/app.20230525
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20230525
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/E203861V1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/materials/25508
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/materials/25509
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/app.20230525?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

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • J28 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Safety; Job Satisfaction; Related Public Policy
    • J45 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Public Sector Labor Markets
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

    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:aea:aejapp:v:18:y:2026:i:3:p:83-114. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.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.