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Jan Bietenbeck . Photo

Jan Bietenbeck

Senior lecturer

Jan Bietenbeck . Photo

Africa's Skill Tragedy : Does Teachers' Lack of Knowledge Lead to Low Student Performance?

Author

  • Jan Bietenbeck
  • Marc Piopiunik
  • Simon Wiederhold

Summary, in English

We study the importance of teacher subject knowledge for student performance in Sub-Saharan Africa using unique international assessment data for sixth-grade students and their teachers. To circumvent bias due to unobserved student heterogeneity, we exploit variation within students across math and reading. Teacher subject knowledge has a modest impact on student performance. Exploiting vast cross-country differences in economic development, we find that teacher knowledge is effective only in more developed African countries. Results are robust to adding teacher fixed effects and accounting for potential sorting based on subject-specific factors.

Department/s

  • Department of Economics

Publishing year

2018-06-01

Language

English

Pages

553-578

Publication/Series

Journal of Human Resources

Volume

53

Issue

3

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

University of Wisconsin Press

Topic

  • Economics

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0022-166X