IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fgv/epgewp/824.html

Managers’productivity and recruitment in the public sector: the case of school principals

Author

Listed:
  • Muñoz, Pablo
  • Prem, Mounu

Abstract

We study whether differences in management can explain variation in productivity and how more effective managers can be recruited in absence of high-powered incentives. To investigate this, we first extend the canonical teacher value-added model to account for school principals, and we document substantial variation in their ability to improve students’ learning. Teachers’ survey responses and quasi-experimental designs based on changes in school management validate our measure of principal effectiveness. Then, we leverage the timing of adoption of a civil service reform and show that despite having relatively rigid wages, public schools were able to attract more effective managers after increasing the competitiveness and transparency of their personnel selection process.

Suggested Citation

  • Muñoz, Pablo & Prem, Mounu, 2021. "Managers’productivity and recruitment in the public sector: the case of school principals," FGV EPGE Economics Working Papers (Ensaios Economicos da EPGE) 824, EPGE Brazilian School of Economics and Finance - FGV EPGE (Brazil).
    • Handle: RePEc:fgv:epgewp:824
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://repositorio.fgv.br/bitstreams/7392224c-5ec5-49d4-b3e5-50d8aec5a1de/download
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Clément de Chaisemartin & Xavier D'Haultfœuille, 2020. "Two-Way Fixed Effects Estimators with Heterogeneous Treatment Effects," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(9), pages 2964-2996, September.
    2. Kremer, M & Maskin, E, 1996. "Wage Inequality and Segregation by Skill," Working papers 96-23, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
    3. John M. Abowd & Henry S. Farber, 1982. "Job Queues and the Union Status of Workers," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 35(3), pages 354-367, April.
    4. Goodman-Bacon, Andrew, 2021. "Difference-in-differences with variation in treatment timing," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 254-277.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Bruna Borges & Gabriel Leite & Ricardo Madeira & Luis Meloni, 2024. "Evaluating the impact of a principals' professional development program on school management practices: Evidence from Brazil," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2024_03, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).
    3. Bazzi,Samuel & Hilmy,Masyhur & Marx,Benjamin & Mahvish Ifrah Shaukat & Stegmann,Andreas, 2024. "It Takes a Village Election : Turnover and Performance in Local Bureaucracies," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10920, The World Bank.
    4. 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.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bas Scheer & Wiljan van den Berge & Maarten Goos & Alan Manning & Anna Salomons, 2022. "Alternative Work Arrangements and Worker Outcomes: Evidence from Payrolling," CPB Discussion Paper 435, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    2. Katrin Huber & Geske Rolvering, 2023. "Public child care and mothers’ career trajectories," Working Papers 228, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).
    3. Shirin, Farzana, 2023. "Does Teacher Salary Support Improve Student Learning Outcomes," 2023 Annual Meeting, July 23-25, Washington D.C. 335793, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    4. Bhalotra, Sonia & Clarke, Damian & Mühlrad, Hanna & Palme, Mårten, 2021. "Health and Labor Market Impacts of Twin Birth : Evidence from a Swedish IVF Policy Mandate," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1391, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    5. Cocco, Valentin & Chakir, Raja & Mouysset, Lauriane, 2025. "Guilty or scapegoat? Land consolidation and hedgerow decline," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    6. Luo, Lianfa & Cheng, Zhiming & Ye, Qingqing & Cheng, Yanjun & Smyth, Russell & Yang, Zhiqing & Zhang, Le, 2024. "Nonmonetary awards and innovation: Evidence from winning China's Top Brand Contest," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    7. Hashida, Yukiko & Dundas, Steven J., 2023. "The effects of a voluntary property buyout and acquisition program on coastal housing markets: Evidence from New York," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    8. Chen, Jiahui & Shi, Jinchuan & Wang, Zheng & Zeng, Shirong & Zhou, Zhuo, 2025. "The power of wings: How air connections fuel cross-regional collaboration in China?," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    9. Jaraitė, Jūratė & Kurtyka, Oliwia & Ollivier, Hélène, 2022. "Take a ride on the (not so) green side: How do CDM projects affect Indian manufacturing firms’ environmental performance?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    10. Mélanie Gittard & Irène Hu, 2024. "MiningLeaks Water Pollution and Child Mortality in Africa," PSE Working Papers halshs-04685390, HAL.
    11. Holmlund, Helena, 2007. "A Researcher's Guide to the Swedish Compulsory School Reform," Working Paper Series 9/2007, Stockholm University, Swedish Institute for Social Research.
    12. Xu, Kefan & Yuan, Peng & Yu, Renjie, 2025. "The effects of mixed ownership reforms on Chinese firms’ emissions," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 191-209.
    13. Cordonnier, Victor & Covarrubias, Katia Alejandra & de la O Campos, Ana Paula, 2024. "The impacts of widespread agricultural interventions on yields and food security in Ethiopia☆," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    14. He, Chengxu & Liang, Yinhe & Wang, Gefei, 2025. "Reshaping Migrant-Native Health Disparities: evidence from the hukou reform in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    15. Dong, Zhanyu & Cai, Jiayi & Li, Xuchao & Luan, Mengna, 2025. "Firm-level impacts and recovery dynamics following a public health crisis: Lessons from China’s SARS experience," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    16. Stephen Gibbons & Claudia Hupkau & Sandra McNally & Henry G. Overman, 2021. "The Effects of College Capital Projects on Student Outcome," CVER Research Papers 035, Centre for Vocational Education Research.
    17. Li, Daiyue & Jin, Yanhong & Cheng, Mingwang, 2024. "Unleashing the power of industrial robotics on firm productivity: Evidence from China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 224(C), pages 500-520.
    18. Aibo Gong, 2021. "Bounds for Treatment Effects in the Presence of Anticipatory Behavior," Papers 2111.06573, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2022.
    19. Timothy K. M. Beatty & Joakim A. Weill, 2024. "Social Security and High-Frequency Labor Supply: Evidence from Uber Drivers," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2024-079, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    20. Christoph Kronenberg, 2021. "New(spaper) evidence of a reduction in suicide mentions during the 19th century US gold rush," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(10), pages 2582-2594, September.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I25 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Economic Development
    • L24 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Contracting Out; Joint Ventures

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:fgv:epgewp:824. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Núcleo de Computação da FGV EPGE (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/epgvfbr.html .

    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.