Teachers, Growth, and Convergence

Robert Tamura

Journal of Political Economy, 2001, vol. 109, issue 5, 1021-1059

Abstract: This paper examines the role of individual instruction and teacher quality in determining economic growth and convergence across school districts. The model shows that if teacher quality is more important for human capital accumulation than individual instruction, human capital convergence will occur between two school districts. This convergence arises because a poor school district hires relatively better teachers but uses them in larger classes in comparison with a rich school district. The model is estimated on panel data of the states of the United States from 1882 to 1990. The estimates indicate that teacher quality is relatively more important for human capital accumulation than individual instruction. The model accounts for all the mean growth in state per capita incomes and between 80 and 100 percent of convergence in state per capita incomes.

Date: 2001
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (63)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/322830 main text (application/pdf)
Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucp:jpolec:v:109:y:2001:i:5:p:1021-1059

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Political Economy from University of Chicago Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Journals Division ().