Teachers and Urban-Rural Gaps in Educational Outcomes. (11th April 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhang, Jian; Jin, Songqing; Torero, Maximo; Li, Tao
• Is Part Of: American journal of agricultural economics. Volume 100:Number 4(2018)
• Page Start: 1207
• Page End: 1223
• Publication Date: 2018-04-11
• Subjects: China -- generalized method of moments -- teachers -- teacher value-added model -- urban-rural education gap; Agriculture -- Economic aspects -- Periodicals; Agriculture -- Periodicals; 338.105
• DOI: 10.1093/ajae/aay009
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0002-9092

Abstract

Abstract: We examine the role of teachers in explaining the urban-rural gap in educational outcomes. Using a large panel data set of students and teachers collected from China and explicitly controlling for the endogeneity of prior student academic achievement, we find that the urban-rural difference in teacher effects contributes in large part to the observed urban-rural gap in student academic achievement. In other words, if rural teachers were of the same quality as urban teachers, the urban-rural gap in student academic achievement would be reduced substantially.