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How do substitute teachers substitute? An empirical study of substitute-teacher labor supply

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  • Gershenson, Seth

Abstract

This paper examines the daily labor supply of a potentially important, but often overlooked, source of instruction in U.S. public schools: substitute teachers. I estimate a sequential binary-choice model of substitute teachers’ job-offer acceptance decisions using data on job offers made by a randomized automated calling system. Importantly, this randomization generates exogenous variation in offer quality. I find that determinants of substitutes’ offer-acceptance decisions include the offer's arrival time, commute time, day of week, classroom type, school type, and school quality. Interestingly, conditional on school quality student demographics do not significantly influence substitutes’ decisions. Longer and higher paying full-day jobs are preferred to half-day jobs, although conditional on daily pay, job length does not significantly impact daily labor-supply decisions. Preferences for several job characteristics are found to vary with substitutes’ regular-teacher certification status. Policy implications of these findings are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Gershenson, Seth, 2012. "How do substitute teachers substitute? An empirical study of substitute-teacher labor supply," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 410-430.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:31:y:2012:i:4:p:410-430
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2011.12.006
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    Cited by:

    1. Seth Gershenson, 2016. "Performance Standards and Employee Effort: Evidence From Teacher Absences," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(3), pages 615-638, June.
    2. Figlio, D. & Karbownik, K. & Salvanes, K.G., 2016. "Education Research and Administrative Data," Handbook of the Economics of Education,, Elsevier.
    3. Seth Gershenson & Stephen B. Holt & Nicholas Papageorge, 2015. "Who Believes in Me? The Effect of Student-Teacher Demographic Match on Teacher Expectations," Upjohn Working Papers 15-231, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    4. Gershenson, Seth, 2021. "Identifying and Producing Effective Teachers," IZA Discussion Papers 14096, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Benhenda, Asma, 2022. "Absence, substitutability and productivity: Evidence from teachers," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    6. Gershenson, Seth, 2013. "The causal effect of commute time on labor supply: Evidence from a natural experiment involving substitute teachers," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 127-140.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Educational economics; Expenditures; Teacher salaries;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • J4 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets

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