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One size fits all? The effects of teachers' cognitive and social abilities on student achievement

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  • Grönqvist, Erik
  • Vlachos, Jonas

Abstract

We document a substantial decline in cognitive and social interactive abilities and in GPAs among entering teachers. Then, using matched student-teacher data, we find that teacher abilities have a negligible impact on average student achievement. This finding hides interesting heterogeneities. In particular, an increase in teachers' cognitive (social) abilities increases (reduces) the achievement gap between high- and low-aptitude students. Teacher cognitive and social abilities further appear to be complements. We also find strong positive effects of male teachers' GPAs that are uniform across students, but similar effects are not found for female teachers' GPAs.

Suggested Citation

  • Grönqvist, Erik & Vlachos, Jonas, 2016. "One size fits all? The effects of teachers' cognitive and social abilities on student achievement," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 138-150.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:42:y:2016:i:c:p:138-150
    DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2016.08.005
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    Cited by:

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    2. Ainoa Aparicio Fenoll & Roberto Quaranta, 2023. "Do Teachers' Labor Contracts Matter?," CHILD Working Papers Series 110 JEL Classification: J, Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic Economics (CHILD) - CCA.
    3. Holmlund, Helena & Böhlmark, Anders, 2017. "Does grade configuration matter for school performance? Short- and long-run effects of school reorganisation," Working Paper Series 2017:6, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    4. Torberg Falch & Bjarne Strøm, 2021. "Mobility of novice teachers," Working Paper Series 19121, Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
    5. John Cullinan & Kevin Denny & Darragh Flannery, 2021. "A distributional analysis of upper secondary school performance," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 60(2), pages 1085-1113, February.
    6. Taghizadeh, Jonas Larsson, 2020. "Effects of school closures on displaced students and future cohorts," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    7. Aline Bütikofer & Giovanni Peri, 2017. "Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills and the Selection and Sorting of Migrants," NBER Working Papers 23877, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Grönqvist, Erik & Hensvik, Lena & Thoresson, Anna, 2022. "Teacher career opportunities and school quality," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    9. Larsson Taghizadeh, Jonas, 2019. "Effects of school closures on displaced students and future cohorts in Sweden 2000-2016," Working Paper Series 2019:4, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    10. Ricardo Estrada & María Lombardi, 2020. "Skills and Selection into Teaching: Evidence from Latin America," Department of Economics Working Papers wp_gob_2020_10, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Cognitive and social ability; Teacher quality; Student achievement;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • H4 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods
    • J4 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets

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