• DOI:10.1257/0002828041302073
• Corpus ID: 7477671

EXPLAINING THE DECLINE OF TEACHER APTITUDE IN THE UNITED STATES

@inproceedings{Hoxby2003EXPLAININGTD,
  title={EXPLAINING THE DECLINE OF TEACHER APTITUDE IN THE UNITED STATES},
  author={Caroline Minter Hoxby and Andrew Leigh},
  year={2003}
}

• C. Hoxby, A. Leigh
• Published 1 April 2004
• Education

There are two main hypotheses for the decline in the aptitude of public school teachers since 1960: improved job opportunities for females in other occupations and the compression of teaching wages owing to unionization. Using data on several college graduating cohorts from 1961 to 1997, we investigate both hypotheses. To separate the hypotheses, we exploit the fact that states varied considerably in the progress of unionization and female wage parity. We proxy for a teacher's aptitude with the mean college aptitude of students at her undergraduate college. We identify the effects of unionization using laws that legalized and facilitated teachers' unionization. The evidence suggests that compression of teaching wages is responsible for about three-quarters of the decline in teacher aptitude. Females' oppor tunities in alternative occupations do matter, but opportunities improved rather similarly for females of all aptitudes. Altho ugh alternative occupations drew women out of teaching in general, they did not have a sufficiently disproportionate effect on high aptitude women to explain the bulk of the decline in teachers aptitude.