TY - JOUR T1 - The Value of Smarter Teachers JF - Journal of Human Resources JO - J Hum Resour SP - 857 LP - 899 DO - 10.3368/jhr.54.4.0317.8619R1 VL - 54 IS - 4 AU - Eric A. Hanushek AU - Marc Piopiunik AU - Simon Wiederhold Y1 - 2019/10/02 UR - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/54/4/857.abstract N2 - We construct country-level measures of teacher cognitive skills using unique assessment data for 31 countries. We find substantial differences in teacher cognitive skills across countries that are strongly related to student performance. Results are supported by fixed-effects estimation exploiting within-country between-subject variation in teacher skills. A series of robustness and placebo tests indicate a systematic influence of teacher skills as distinct from overall differences among countries in the level of cognitive skills. Moreover, observed country variations in teacher cognitive skills are significantly related to differences in women’s access to high-skill occupations outside teaching and to salary premiums for teachers. ER -