Africa's Skill Tragedy : Does Teachers' Lack of Knowledge Lead to Low Student Performance?
(2018) In Journal of Human Resources 53(3). p.553-578- Abstract
- We study the importance of teacher subject knowledge for student performance in Sub-Saharan Africa using unique international assessment data for sixth-grade students and their teachers. To circumvent bias due to unobserved student heterogeneity, we exploit variation within students across math and reading. Teacher subject knowledge has a modest impact on student performance. Exploiting vast cross-country differences in economic development, we find that teacher knowledge is effective only in more developed African countries. Results are robust to adding teacher fixed effects and accounting for potential sorting based on subject-specific factors.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/5212fbc6-dcd7-4371-a380-12a2d842435d
- author
- Bietenbeck, Jan LU ; Piopiunik, Marc and Wiederhold, Simon
- organization
- publishing date
- 2018-06-01
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Journal of Human Resources
- volume
- 53
- issue
- 3
- pages
- 26 pages
- publisher
- University of Wisconsin Press
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85049079027
- ISSN
- 0022-166X
- DOI
- 10.3368/jhr.53.3.0616-8002R1
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 5212fbc6-dcd7-4371-a380-12a2d842435d
- date added to LUP
- 2017-03-16 10:51:43
- date last changed
- 2022-04-24 22:42:57
@article{5212fbc6-dcd7-4371-a380-12a2d842435d, abstract = {{We study the importance of teacher subject knowledge for student performance in Sub-Saharan Africa using unique international assessment data for sixth-grade students and their teachers. To circumvent bias due to unobserved student heterogeneity, we exploit variation within students across math and reading. Teacher subject knowledge has a modest impact on student performance. Exploiting vast cross-country differences in economic development, we find that teacher knowledge is effective only in more developed African countries. Results are robust to adding teacher fixed effects and accounting for potential sorting based on subject-specific factors.}}, author = {{Bietenbeck, Jan and Piopiunik, Marc and Wiederhold, Simon}}, issn = {{0022-166X}}, language = {{eng}}, month = {{06}}, number = {{3}}, pages = {{553--578}}, publisher = {{University of Wisconsin Press}}, series = {{Journal of Human Resources}}, title = {{Africa's Skill Tragedy : Does Teachers' Lack of Knowledge Lead to Low Student Performance?}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3368/jhr.53.3.0616-8002R1}}, doi = {{10.3368/jhr.53.3.0616-8002R1}}, volume = {{53}}, year = {{2018}}, }