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Incentives for Teacher Relocation: Evidence from the Gambian Hardship Allowance

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  • Pugatch, Todd

    (Oregon State University)

  • Schroeder, Elizabeth

    (Oregon State University)

Abstract

We evaluate the impact of the Gambian hardship allowance, which provides a salary premium of 30-40% to primary school teachers in remote locations, on the distribution and characteristics of teachers across schools. A geographic discontinuity in the policy's implementation and the presence of common pre-treatment trends between hardship and non-hardship schools provide sources of identifying variation. We find that the hardship allowance increased the share of qualified (certified) teachers by 10 percentage points. The policy also reduced the pupil-qualified teacher ratio by 27, or 61% of the mean, in recipient schools close to the distance threshold. Further analysis suggests that these gains were not merely the result of teachers switching from non-hardship to hardship schools. With similar policies in place in more than two dozen other developing countries, our study provides an important piece of evidence on their effectiveness.

Suggested Citation

  • Pugatch, Todd & Schroeder, Elizabeth, 2013. "Incentives for Teacher Relocation: Evidence from the Gambian Hardship Allowance," IZA Discussion Papers 7723, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7723
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    Cited by:

    1. David K. Evans & Fei Yuan & Deon Filmer, 2020. "Are Teachers in Africa Poorly Paid? Evidence from 15 Countries," Working Papers 538, Center for Global Development.
    2. Moussa P Blimpo & Ousman Gajigo & Todd Pugatch, 2019. "Financial Constraints and Girls’ Secondary Education: Evidence from School Fee Elimination in The Gambia," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 33(1), pages 185-208.
    3. Cattaneo, Andrea & Adukia, Anjali & Brown, David L. & Christiaensen, Luc & Evans, David K. & Haakenstad, Annie & McMenomy, Theresa & Partridge, Mark & Vaz, Sara & Weiss, Daniel J., 2022. "Economic and social development along the urban–rural continuum: New opportunities to inform policy," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    4. 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.
    5. Mark Gersovitz, 2018. "The allocation of health (and other professional) personnel to rural areas of poor countries," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(2), pages 390-403, February.
    6. Evans, David K. & Yuan, Fei & Filmer, Deon, 2022. "Teacher pay in Africa: Evidence from 15 countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    7. Pugatch, Todd & Schroeder, Elizabeth, 2014. "Incentives for teacher relocation: Evidence from the Gambian hardship allowance," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 120-136.
    8. Todd Pugatch & Elizabeth Schroeder, 2018. "Teacher pay and student performance: evidence from the Gambian hardship allowance," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(2), pages 249-276, April.
    9. Juan F. Castro & Bruno Esposito, 2017. "The Effect of Teacher Bonuses on Learning Outcomes and the Distribution of Teacher Skill: Evidence from Rural Schools in Peru," Working Papers 104, Peruvian Economic Association.
    10. Leonardo Bonilla-Mejía & Erika Londoño-Ortega, 2021. "Geographic Isolation and Learning in Rural Schools," Borradores de Economia 1169, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    11. Tang, Yipeng, 2018. "What makes rural teachers happy? An investigation on the subjective well-being (SWB) of Chinese rural teachers," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 192-200.
    12. Giordono, Leanne & Pugatch, Todd, 2015. "Informal Fee Elimination and Student Performance: Evidence from The Gambia," IZA Discussion Papers 9560, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Todd Pugatch, 2017. "Is teacher certification an effective tool for developing countries?," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 349-349, April.
    14. Camelo, Rafael & Ponczek, Vladimir, 2021. "Teacher Turnover and Financial Incentives in Underprivileged Schools: Evidence from a Compensation Policy in a Developing Country," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    teacher labor markets; rural schools; Gambia; program evaluation; regression discontinuity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I25 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Economic Development
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • J38 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Public Policy
    • J45 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Public Sector Labor Markets
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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