Work

Early Retirement Incentives and Student Achievement

Year: 2013

Type: article

Abstract: Early retirement incentives (ERIs) are increasingly prevalent in education as districts seek to close budget gaps by replacing expensive experienced teachers with lower-cost newer teachers. Combined with the aging of the teacher workforce, these ERIs are likely to change the composition of teachers dramatically in the coming years. We use exogenous variation from an ERI program in Illinois in the mid-1990s to provide the first evidence in the literature of the effects of large-scale teacher retirements on student achievement. We find the program did not reduce test scores; likely, it increased them, with positive effects most pronounced in lower-SES schools.

Source: American Economic Journal Economic Policy

DOI: 10.1257/pol.6.3.120

Authors: Maria D. Fitzpatrick, Michael F. Lovenheim

Institutions: National Bureau of Economic Research, Cornell University

Language: English

Topic: School Choice and Performance

Subfield: Education

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Quality education

Open Access status: green

Funder: National Institute on Aging