Teachers and Teaching in Educational Production

Advanced Seminar  (Master Students)

Prof. Dr. Ludger Woessmann

Blocked Seminar
8 November 2012

The economics of education has seen a boom of research on teachers in recent years. The background is a two-fold stylized finding in the literature: First, estimates from rich U.S. panel datasets on individual student achievement suggest that teacher quality is a crucial determi-nant of student outcomes. Second, most observable attributes of teachers and teaching do not seem to be able to account for the large teacher effect. As a consequence, substantial recent research has gone into exploring which teacher-related factors are most important for effective educational production. What is the role of teachers’ education, training, and experience? How important are their skills and teaching methods? Does the teacher labor market reward effective teaching? What can education policy do to improve teaching? Can incentives in the form of performance pay help? At a methodological level, can we trust estimates of teacher quality based on the standard panel model that estimates the value-added in student achievement that a teacher created? These are the questions that this advanced seminar will address based on the most recent high-level research. A major focus will be placed on the use of modern microeconometric methods to identify causal effects. [Precondition: interest in econometrics.]

Die Vorbesprechung für das Seminar findet am Mittwoch, den 4. Juli, um 16.00 Uhr im Seminarraum des CES (Schackstr. 4, II. Stock, Zi. 207) statt.

Mit der Teilnahme an dieser Vorbesprechung sind Sie verbindlich zu diesem Seminar angemeldet. Bitte beachten Sie hierzu unbedingt folgende Hinweise des Prüfungsausschusses: http://www.isc.uni-muenchen.de/aktuelles/verbindliche_seminaranmeldung.pdf