关键词:
Microeconomics
School leadership
Medicaid
Payoff information
Gameplay
摘要:
This dissertation contains three chapters on applied microeconomics. Chapter 1 explores whether effective teachers are more likely to progress to school leadership positions. Using data on 4th through 8th grade teachers at elementary and middle schools in North Carolina, I estimate the relationship between a teacher's effectiveness in teaching (as measured by value-added to math and reading standardized test scores) and their likelihood of becoming an assistant principal in the next academic year. I find that one standard deviation higher value-added math (reading) teachers are on average 33.7% (7.9%) more likely to become an assistant principal in the next academic year after controlling for differences across educators, such as demographic characteristics, teaching experience, and training. There is important heterogeneity in the size of this effect across groups, with value-added being more predictive of promotion to assistant principal for both male teachers and non-white teachers. Finally, to explore the consequences of promoting teachers based on current performance, I estimate principal value-added and compare it to an educator's teacher value-added. Using a back of the envelope calculation, I find that these promotion practices on average lead to small positive impacts on student achievement. Chapter 2 investigates the extent to which the provision of Medicaid to previously ineligible, low-income childless adults affects their household composition. Using a staggered adoption difference-in-differences design on an urban sample of individuals with less than a high school degree, we find that 26 to 39 year olds experience a significant 4.2% decline in the number of individuals living in the household, which is due to living with fewer extended family members. At the same time, 26 to 39 year olds experience a relatively smaller decline in the number of rooms (1.8%), leading to a 3.1% reduction in the level of household crowding, as measured by persons per bedro