IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/jlabec/doi10.1086-725166.html

Altruism or Money? Reducing Teacher Sorting Using Behavioral Strategies in Peru

Author

Listed:
  • Nicolás Ajzenman
  • Eleonora Bertoni
  • Gregory Elacqua
  • Luana Marotta
  • Carolina Méndez Vargas

Abstract

Inequality in access to high-quality teachers is an important driver of socioeconomic student achievement gaps. We experimentally evaluate a novel nationwide low-cost government program that deployed two behavioral strategies to motivate teachers to apply to job vacancies in disadvantaged schools. These strategies consisted of an “altruistic identity” treatment, which primed teachers’ altruistic identity by making it more salient, and an “extrinsic incentives” treatment, which simplified the presentation and increased the salience of an existing government monetary incentive scheme that rewards teachers who work in underprivileged institutions. Both strategies successfully encouraged teaching candidates to apply to disadvantaged schools.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicolás Ajzenman & Eleonora Bertoni & Gregory Elacqua & Luana Marotta & Carolina Méndez Vargas, 2024. "Altruism or Money? Reducing Teacher Sorting Using Behavioral Strategies in Peru," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 42(4), pages 1049-1091.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlabec:doi:10.1086/725166
    DOI: 10.1086/725166
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/725166
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/725166
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/725166?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 look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lentini, Valeria & Gimenez, Gregorio & Valbuena, Javier, 2024. "Teachers' preferences for incentives to work in disadvantaged districts: A discrete choice experiment in Costa Rica," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 831-845.
    2. Hongmei Ma & Wanpeng Lei, 2025. "Compensating teachers serving rural schools: evidence from a developing region in southern China," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-15, December.
    3. Matteo Bobba & Tim Ederer & Gianmarco León-Ciliotta & Christopher A. Neilson & Marco Nieddu, 2021. "Teacher compensation and structural inequality: Evidence from centralized teacher school choice in Perú," Economics Working Papers 1788, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    4. Ajzenman, Nicolás & Elacqua, Gregory & Hincapié, Diana & Jaimovich, Analía & Boo, Florencia López & Paredes, Diana & Román, Alonso, 2021. "Career choice motivation using behavioral strategies," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    5. Elacqua, Gregory & Rosa, Leonardo, 2025. "Teacher transfers and the disruption of teacher staffing in the City of Sao Paulo," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    6. Ajzenman, Nicolás & Elacqua, Gregory & Marotta, Luana & Westh Olsen, Anne Sofie, 2021. "Order Effects and Employment Decisions: Experimental Evidence from a Nationwide Program," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 11541, Inter-American Development Bank.
    7. Araya, Roberto & Cristia, Julian & Escalante, Lisseth & Fabregas, Raissa & Méndez, Carolina & Ríos, Gera, 2025. "Messaging teachers to boost student EdTech use," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    8. Elacqua, Gregory & Rodrigues, Mateus & Rosa, Leonardo, 2025. "Impact of Monetary Incentives on Teacher Decisions to Leave and Choose Schools: Evidence from a Policy Reform in SaÞo Paulo," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 13950, Inter-American Development Bank.
    9. Kyle Greenberg & Parag A. Pathak & Tayfun Sönmez, 2024. "Redesigning the US Army's Branching Process: A Case Study in Minimalist Market Design," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 114(4), pages 1070-1106, April.
    10. Elacqua, Gregory & Rosa, Leonardo, 2023. "Teacher transfers and the disruption of Teacher Staffing in the City of Sao Paulo," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 12702, Inter-American Development Bank.
    11. Bonilla-Mejía, Leonardo & Londoño-Ortega, Erika & Henao, María Fernanda, 2024. "Geographic isolation and learning: Evidence from rural schools in Colombia," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    12. Emma Duchini & Victor Lavy & Stephen Machin & Shqiponja Telhaj, 2025. "Personnel policy in public sector organizations: evidence from England's academy schools," CEP Discussion Papers dp2129, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    13. Bedasso, Biniam & Mendez Acosta, Amina, 2025. "The teachers who leave: Teacher attrition in Burkina Faso," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    14. Elacqua, Gregory & Gómez, Leidy & Krussig, Thomas & Marotta, Luana & Méndez, Carolina & Neilson, Christopher, 2022. "The Potential of Smart Matching Platforms in Teacher Assignment: The Case of Ecuador," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 12483, Inter-American Development Bank.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • I25 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Economic Development

    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:ucp:jlabec:doi:10.1086/725166. 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: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JOLE .

    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.