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How the political power of teacher unions affects education

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  • Eduardo Campillo Betancourt
  • Kensuke Maeba

Abstract

This paper studies the effects of politically powerful teacher unions on public education by focusing on Mexico's largest corporatist teacher union and its use of a performance-pay program as a patronage tool. We find that after the 2006 presidential election, teacher promotions disproportionately increased in municipalities where the union-affiliated candidate received a plurality of votes. This pattern is consistent with the hypothesis that the program's implementation was distorted by the union's strengthened political alliance with the ruling party. We also show that the increased promotions negatively affected student learning outcomes by crowding out teachers' incentives to invest effort in teaching.

Suggested Citation

  • Eduardo Campillo Betancourt & Kensuke Maeba, 2026. "How the political power of teacher unions affects education," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(4), pages 510-528, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:edecon:v:34:y:2026:i:4:p:510-528
    DOI: 10.1080/09645292.2025.2544189
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