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Teacher Pay and Educational Outcomes: Evidence from the Rural Hardship Allowance in Zambia

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  • Grieve Chelwa
  • Miquel Pellicer
  • Mashekwa Maboshe

Abstract

This paper studies the effect of unconditional teacher salary increases on teacher and student outcomes. To study the issue, we evaluate the rural hardship allowance in Zambia, which corresponds to a salary increase of 20%. This allowance is allocated to schools on the basis of a distance criterion allowing us to use a regression discontinuity design. We use administrative data from 2004 to 2015 on school, teacher characteristics and test scores. The administrative data are complemented with a telephone survey of schools close to the eligibility threshold. We find that crossing the threshold increases the share of teachers obtaining the allowance by 40%. Because of some non‐compliance with the allocation rule, our estimates are fairly imprecise. Focusing on provinces with better compliance we find some, albeit weak, evidence that the allowance increases the stock of teachers. We, however, find no effects on teacher characteristics or on student test scores.

Suggested Citation

  • Grieve Chelwa & Miquel Pellicer & Mashekwa Maboshe, 2019. "Teacher Pay and Educational Outcomes: Evidence from the Rural Hardship Allowance in Zambia," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 87(3), pages 255-282, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:sajeco:v:87:y:2019:i:3:p:255-282
    DOI: 10.1111/saje.12227
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    Cited by:

    1. Crawfurd, Lee & Pugatch, Todd, 2020. "Teacher Labor Markets in Developing Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 12985, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Cattaneo, Andrea & Adukia, Anjali & Brown, David L. & Christiaensen, Luc & Evans, David K. & Haakenstad, Annie & McMenomy, Theresa & Partridge, Mark & Vaz, Sara & Weiss, Daniel J., 2022. "Economic and social development along the urban–rural continuum: New opportunities to inform policy," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    3. Evans, David K. & Yuan, Fei & Filmer, Deon, 2022. "Teacher pay in Africa: Evidence from 15 countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    4. Torsten Figueiredo Walter, 2020. "Misallocation in the Public Sector? Cross-Country Evidence from Two Million Primary Schools," STICERD - Economic Organisation and Public Policy Discussion Papers Series 70, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.

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