Teachers' Salaries in Latin America: How Much Are They (Under or Over) Paid?

This paper documents the extent to which teachers are underpaid vis-à-vis workers in other professional and technical occupations in Latin America circa 2007. These labor earnings differences, attributed to observable socio-demographic and job characteristics, are assessed using a matching methodology (Ñopo, 2008). Teachers' underpayment is found to be stronger than what has been previously reported in the literature, especially among pre-school and primary teachers. Nonetheless, behind the region averages there is an important cross-country heterogeneity. Teachers' underpayment is more pronounced among males, older workers, household heads, part-timers, formal workers, those who work in the private sector, and (mostly) among those with complete tertiary education. Two amenities of the teaching profession, namely the longer job tenure and the flexible job schedules within the year, are also explored. Even after accounting for the possible compensating differentials of these two amenities, teachers' underpayment vis-à-vis that of other professional and technicians prevail.wage differentials, professional labor markets, Latin America

School Markets: The Impact of Information Approximating Schools' Effectiveness

The impact of competition on academic outcomes is likely to depend on whether parents are informed about schools' effectiveness or valued added (which may or may not be correlated with absolute measures of their quality), and on whether this information influences their school choices, thereby affecting schools' market outcomes. To explore these issues, this paper considers Chile's SNED program, which seeks to identify effective schools, selecting them from within "homogeneous groups" of arguably comparable institutions. Its results are widely disseminated, and the information it generates is quite different from that conveyed by a simple test-based ranking of schools (which in Chile, turns out to largely resemble a ranking based on socioeconomic status). We rely on a sharp regression discontinuity to estimate the effect that being identified as a SNED winner has on schools’ enrollment, tuition levels, and socioeconomic composition. Through five applications of the program, we find no consistent evidence that winning a SNED award affects these outcomes. This suggests that information on school effectiveness -- at least as it is calculated and delivered by the SNED -- might not much affect school markets.

Equity and Achievement in the Chilean School Choice Experience

The aim of this paper is to analyze, using a hierarchical linear model, the degree to which a system of choice, as the one implemented in Chile since the beginning of the 80’s, can promote student achievement and equity in the social distribution of achievement. Using data from a standardized achievement test including 226,860 4tth degree students and 4,949 schools, we investigate the association between students’ SES and achievement, within and between schools. We also investigate up to what extent different categories of schools enjoy advantages in educating low-income students. These are important issues because unlike the limited vouchers programs in the US, Chile has had a nationwide school choice program for more than 20 yearseducation vouchers, achievement, equity,

Measuring the Relative Pay of Latin American School Teachers at the turn of the 20th Century

How much are teachers paid in comparison to those in other professions in Latin America? How have these differences evolved at the turn of the 20th century? This paper documents the extent to which teachers are underpaid vis‐à‐vis workers in other professional and technical occupations in thirteen Latin‐American countries circa 2007. It also analyses the evolution of the earnings gaps between circa 1997 and circa 2007. After controlling the earnings differentials by observable characteristics linked to productivity, using the methodology developed in Ñopo (2008), we find that teachers are underpaid vis‐à‐vis other professionals and technicians in Latin America in both periods: circa 1997 and circa 2007. This has been the case for hourly earnings gaps at the main and secondary jobs. However, the analysis performed provides evidence that the earnings gap decreased during the decade of analysis, most of the drop is attributed to a general trend in earnings gap reduction rather than as a result of teachers’ improvements on their observable characteristics. The earnings gap shows important heterogeneities, across countries and along the earnings distributions

Evolution of Teachers’ Salaries in Latin America at the Turn of the 20th Century : How Much Are They (Under or Over) Paid?

How much are teachers paid in comparison to those in other professions in Latin America? How have these differences evolved at the turn of the 20th century? This paper reports the evolution, between circa 1997 and circa 2007, of teachers´ salaries vis-à-vis workers in other professional and technical occupations for thirteen Latin-American countries. After controlling the earnings differentials by observable characteristics linked to productivity it is found that the hourly earnings gap, although substantial, decreased throughout the decade. This has been the case for earnings gaps at the main and secondary jobs, and also for those measured in terms of monthly and yearly earnings. Nonetheless, behind the region averages there is an important cross-country heterogeneity

Evaluación del Desempeño e Incentivos en la Educación Chilena

This paper emphasizes the importance of assessment and incentive systems in education. In particular, it analyzes the design and implementation of the National System of Performance Assessment applied in Chile since 1996. In the first place, we discuss thIncentive systems in education, performance assessment

La Productividad Científica de Economía y Administración en Chile. Un Análisis Comparativo

The first part of this paper compares the volume and scientific productivity of Business Administration and Economics in Chile with the rest of scientific disciplines at the national and international levels. Given that scientific productivity is heterogeBusiness Administration and Economics, Scientific Productivity, Citations, Impact Factor, Impact Relative to Field

Brechas de Calidad y Sistemas de Incentivos en Educación en Chile

La situación del sistema educacional en Chile –así como en muchos otros países de la región presenta dos características que hacen necesaria la introducción de un sistema de incentivos: una estructura de remuneraciones de los docentes muy pareja, basada (hasta antes de 1996) sólo en escalas uniformes de remuneraciones con premios a la experiencia; y una enorme dispersión de la calidad en el sistema educativo

Financiamiento de la Salud en la Tercera Edad en el Sistema Isapre

The object of this paper is to determine whether the elderly will be able to finance their contributions to the private health insurance system ISAPRE, and to provide policy recommendations if financing problems are found. We examine medical costs per af

Beyond Heckscher-Ohlin: Trade and labour market interaction in a case study for Chile

Comercio, Mercado de trabajo, Chile