PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Filmer, Deon
AU  - Habyarimana, James
AU  - Sabarwal, Shwetlena
TI  - Teacher Performance-Based Incentives and Learning Inequality
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.1120-11313R2
DP  - 2023 Oct 06
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 1120-11313R2
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2023/10/02/jhr.1120-11313R2.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2023/10/02/jhr.1120-11313R2.full
AB  - This study evaluates the impacts of low-cost, performance-based incentives in Tanzanian secondary schools. Results from a two-phase randomized trial show that teacher incentives, when sustained for two years, led to persistent, modest average improvements in student achievement across different subjects. Randomly withdrawing incentives after a year didn’t lead to a “discouragement effect”. Incentives may have exacerbated learning inequality across schools. Increases in learning were concentrated among initially better-performing schools. We also find weak evidence of teacher incentives exacerbating learning inequality within initially better-performing schools. Finally, the study finds that incentivizing students without simultaneously incentivizing teachers did not produce learning gains.