Teacher attrition is a chronic challenge facing many education systems, and has been shown to negatively impact education quality and equity. Common explanations rooted in occupational choice theory identify pecuniary and non-pecuniary rewards as critical factors in motivating and retaining teachers. Using China Household Income Project (CHIP) urban dataset, which contains detailed information on teacher career decisions, this study examines these theoretical stipulations by simultaneously modeling teacher career decisions, wage compensation, and on-the-job well-being. Probit panel regression results demonstrate that a 10% increase in teacher wage and well-being gaps, relative to comparable professionals, predicts a 7.9% and 32% lower probability of retention respectively, with effects mostly operating through teacher well-being.
AkibaM.ChiuY. L.ShimizuK.LiangG. (2012). Teacher salary and national achievement: A cross-national analysis of 30 countries. International Journal of Educational Research, 53, 171–181.
2.
AnX. (2014). On the changes and differences in characteristics of teachers’ salary in primary and secondary schools (In Chinese). Educational Research, 12(419), 44–53.
3.
ActonR.GlasgowP. (2015). Teacher wellbeing in neoliberal contexts: A review of the literature. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 40(8), 6.
4.
AllegrettoS.CorcoranS.MishelL. (2008). The teaching penalty: Teacher pay losing ground. Economic Policy Institute.
5.
BaumolW. (1993). Health care, education and the cost disease: A looming crisis for public choice. Public Choice, 77(1), 17–28.
6.
BauN.DasJ. (2017). The misallocation of pay and productivity in the public sector: Evidence from the labor market for teachers. The World Bank.
7.
BurkeP.SchuckS.AubussonP.BuchananJ.LouviereJ.PrescottA. (2013). Why do early career teachers choose to remain in the profession? The use of best-worst scaling to quantify key factors. International Journal of Educational Research, 62, 259–268.
8.
ChanD. (2013). Subjective well-being of Hong Kong Chinese teachers: The contribution of gratitude, forgiveness, and the orientations to happiness. Teaching and Teacher Education, 32, 22–30.
9.
ChenY. (2003). A probe into problems of teacher salaries in 1990’s. Tsinghua Journal of Education, 24(10), 92–96.
10.
ChettyR.FriedmanJ.RockoffJ. (2014). Measuring the impacts of teachers II: Teacher value-added and student outcomes in adulthood. American Economic Review, 104(9), 2633–2679.
11.
ChingosM.WestM. (2012). Do more effective teachers earn more outside the classroom?Education Finance and Policy, 7(1), 8–43
12.
ClarkA.OswaldA. (2002). A simple statistical method for measuring how life events affect happiness. International Journal of Epidemiology, 31(6), 1139–1144.
13.
CorcoranS.EvansW.SchwabR. (2004). Women, the labor market, and the declining relative quality of teachers. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 23(3), 449–470.
14.
CorreaJ.ParroF.ReyesL. (2015). Self-selection in the market of teachers. Applied Economics, 47(13), 1331–1349.
15.
DeAngelisK. J.PresleyJ. B. (2011). Toward a more nuanced understanding of new teacher attrition. Education and Urban Society, 43(5), 598–626.
16.
de SterckeJ.GoyetteN.RobertsonJ. E. (2015). Happiness in the classroom: Strategies for teacher retention and development. Prospects, 45(4), 421–427.
17.
DienerE.RyanK. (2009). Subjective well-being: A general overview. South African Journal of Psychology, 39(4), 391–406.
18.
DoltonP.MakepeaceG.van der KlaauwW. (1989) Occupational choice and earnings determination: The role of sample selection and non-pecuniary factors. Oxford Economics Papers, 41(1), 573–594.
19.
DoltonP.Marcenaro-GutierrezO. D. (2011). If you pay peanuts do you get monkeys? A cross-country analysis of teacher pay and pupil performance. Economic Policy, 26(65), 5–55.
20.
DuckworthA. L.YeagerD. S. (2015). Measurement matters: Assessing personal qualities other than cognitive ability for educational purposes. Educational Researcher, 44(4), 237–251.
21.
DunnA. H.DowneyC. A. (2018). Betting the house: Teacher investment, identity, and attrition in urban schools. Education and Urban Society, 50(3), 207–229.
22.
EslingerJ. C. (2014). Navigating between a rock and a hard place: Lessons from an urban school teacher. Education and Urban Society, 46(2), 209–233.
23.
FalchT.JohansenK.StromB. (2009). Teacher shortages and the business cycle. Labour Economics, 16(6), 648–658.
24.
FangZ.SakellariouC. (2015). Glass ceilings versus sticky floors: Evidence from Southeast Asia and an international update. Asian Economic Journal, 29(3), 215–242.
25.
GibbsS.MillerA. (2014). Teachers’ resilience and well-being: A role for educational psychology. Teachers and Teaching, 20(5), 609–621.
26.
GoreJ.BoweJ. (2015). Interrupting attrition? Re-shaping the transition from preservice to inservice teaching through Quality Teaching Rounds. International Journal of Educational Research, 73, 77–88.
27.
GuQ.LiQ. (2013). Sustaining resilience in times of change: Stories from Chinese teachers. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 41(3), 288–303.
28.
GuarinoC. M.SantibanezL.DaleyG. A. (2006). Teacher recruitment and retention: A review of the recent empirical literature. Review of Educational Research, 76(2), 173–208.
29.
GustafssonB.LiS.SatoH. (2014). Data for studying earnings, the distribution of household income and poverty in China. China Economic Review, 30, 419–431.
30.
HanJ.ZhaoQ.ZhangM. (2016). China’s income inequality in the global context. Perspectives in Science, 7, 24–29.
31.
HanS.BorgonoviF.GuerrieroS. (2018). What motivates high school students to want to be teachers? The role of salary, working conditions, and societal evaluations about occupations in a comparative perspective. American Educational Research Journal, 55(1), 3–39.
32.
HanushekE. A. (2011). The economic value of higher teacher quality. Economics of Education Review, 30(3), 466–479.
33.
HanushekE.RivkinS. (2007). Pay, working conditions, and teacher quality. The Future of Children, 69–86.
34.
HanushekE.RivkinS. (2012). The distribution of teacher quality and implications for policy. Annual Review of Economics, 4(1), 131–157.
35.
HendricksM. (2014). Does it pay to pay teachers more? Evidence from Texas. Journal of Public Economics, 109, 50–63.
36.
HeynemanS.LoxleyW. (1983). The effect of primary-school quality on academic achievement across twenty-nine high-and low-income countries. American Journal of Sociology, 88(6), 1162–1194.
37.
HolzC.LinY. (2001). Pitfalls of China’s industrial statistics: Inconsistencies and specification problems. China Review, 1(1), 29–71.
38.
HoxbyC.LeighA. (2004). Pulled away or pushed out? Explaining the decline of teacher aptitude in the United States. AEA Papers and Proceedings, 94(2), 236–240.
39.
IngersollR. M. (2012). Beginning teacher induction what the data tell us. Phi Delta Kappan, 93(8), 47–51.
JacksonK.RockoffJ.StaigerD. (2014) Teacher effects and teacher policies. Annual Review of Economics, 6(8), 1–25.
42.
KahnemanD.KruegerA. B. (2006). Developments in the measurement of subjective well-being. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 20(1), 3–24.
43.
KaneT.StaigerD. (2008). Estimating teacher impacts on student achievement: An experimental evaluation. (NBER Working Paper No. 14607). National Bureau of Economic Research.
44.
KelchtermansG. (2017). ‘Should I stay or should I go?’ Unpacking teacher attrition/retention as an educational issue. Teachers and Teaching, 23(8), 961–977.
45.
LauermannF.KonigJ. (2016). Teachers’ professional competence and well-being: Understanding the links between general pedagogical knowledge, self-efficacy and burnout. Learning and Instruction, 45, 9–19.
46.
LazearE. (1986). Salaries and piece rates. Journal of Business, 59(3), 405–431.
47.
LevinH. (2011). The economics of education. Albany Government Law Review, 4, 395–425.
48.
LindqvistP.NordangerU.CarlssonR. (2014). Teacher attrition the first five years – A multifaceted image. Teaching and Teacher Education, 40(2), 94–103.
49.
LiuJ.Steiner-KhamsiG. (2020). Human Capital Index and the hidden penalty for non-participation in ILSAs. International Journal of Educational Development, 73(March), 102149.
50.
LiuS. (2012). The influences of school climate and teacher compensation on teachers’ turnover intention in China. Educational Psychology, 32(5), 553–569.
51.
LiuE.JohnsonS.PeskeH. (2004). New teachers and the Massachusetts signing bonus: The limits of inducements. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 26(3), 217–236.
52.
LiuS.OnwuegbuzieA. (2012). Chinese teachers’ work stress and their turnover intention. International Journal of Educational Research, 53, 160–170.
53.
McInerneyD.KorpershoekH.WangH.MorinA. (2018). Teachers’ occupational attributes and their psychological wellbeing, job satisfaction, occupational self-concept and quitting intentions. Teaching and Teacher Education, 71, 145–158.
54.
Ministry of Education. (2008). Guidelines on performance evaluation of teachers in primary and secondary schools. Beijing: Ministry of Education.
55.
Ministry of Education. (2014). Education Statistics Yearbook 2014. Beijing: Ministry of Education.
56.
MooreA.DestefanoJ.TerwayA.BalwanzD. (2008). The expansion of secondary education and the need for teachers: How big is the gap? (USAID Working Papers). United States Agency International Development.
57.
NaglerM.PiopiunikM.WestM. (2015). Weak markets, strong teachers: recession at career stat and teacher effectiveness. (NBER Working Papers 21393). National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
58.
NeugebauerM. (2015). Who chooses teaching under different labor market conditions? Evidence from West Germany, 1980–2009. Teaching and Teacher Education, 45, 137–148.
59.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (2013). Teachers for the 21st Century Using Evaluation to Improve Teaching. Paris, France: OECD Publishing.
60.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (2016). Education at a glance 2016: OECD indicators. Paris, France: OECD Publishing.
61.
People’s Congress. (2006). Compulsory education law in 2006. Beijing: People’s Congress.
62.
PlekhanovD. (2017). Quality of China’s official statistics: A brief review of academic perspectives. Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies, 35(1), 76–101.
63.
RenshawT. L.LongA. C.CookC. R. (2015). Assessing teachers’ positive psychological functioning at work: Development and validation of the teacher subjective well-being questionnaire. School Psychology Quarterly, 30(2), 289.
64.
RinkeC. R. (2013). Teaching as exploration? The difficult road out of the classroom. Teaching and Teacher Education, 34, 98–106.
65.
RockoffJ.StaigerD.KaneT.TaylorE. (2012). Information and employee evaluation: Evidence from a randomized intervention in public schools. American Economic Review, 102(7), 3184–3213.
66.
RonfeldtM.LoebS.WyckoffJ. (2013). How teacher turnover harms student achievement. American Educational Research Journal, 50(1), 4–36.
67.
RoseH.SonstelieJ. (2010). School board politics, school district size, and the bargaining power of teachers’ unions. Journal of Urban Economics, 67(3), 438–450.
68.
SargentT.HannumE. (2005). Keeping teachers happy: Job satisfaction among primary school teachers in rural northwest China. Comparative Education Review, 49(2), 173–204.
69.
SchaeferL.LongJ. S.ClandininD. J. (2012). Questioning the research on early career teacher attrition and retention. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 58(1), 106–121.
70.
SchleicherA. (2012). Preparing teachers and developing school leaders for the 21st century: Lessons from around the World. Paris, France: OECD Publishing.
71.
SimonN. S.JohnsonS. M. (2015). Teacher turnover in high-poverty schools: What we know and can do. Teachers College Record, 117(3), 1–36.
72.
Steiner-KhamsiG. (2012). The global local Nexus in comparative policy studies: Analyzing the triple bonus system in Mongolia over Time. Comparative Education, 48(4), 455–471.
73.
StrunkK. (2011). Are teachers’ unions really to blame? The relationships between teachers’ union contract restrictiveness, district resource allocation and student test scores in California. Education Finance and Policy, 6, 354–398.
74.
State Council. (2017). Thirteen-five national education plan. State Council.
75.
SteeleJ. L.MurnaneR. J.WillettJ. B. (2010). Do financial incentives help low-performing schools attract and keep academically talented teachers? Evidence from California. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 29(3), 451–478.
76.
SutcherL.Darling-HammondL.Carver-ThomasD. (2016). A coming crisis in teaching? Teacher supply, demand, and shortages in the US. Learning Policy Institute.
77.
TangY. (2018). What makes rural teachers happy? An investigation on the subjective well-being (SWB) of Chinese rural teachers. International Journal of Educational Development, 62, 192–200.
78.
TangY.HeW.LiuL.LiQ. (2018). Beyond the paycheck: Chinese rural teacher well-being and the impact of professional learning and local community engagement. Teachers and Teaching, 24(7), 825–839.
79.
VagiR.PivovarovaM. (2017). “Theorizing teacher mobility”: A critical review of literature. Teachers and Teaching, 23(7), 781–793.
80.
WangL.LaiM.LoL. (2014). Teacher professionalism under the recent reform of performance pay in Mainland China. Prospects, 44(3), 429–443.
81.
WenY. (2015). The making of an economic superpower-unlocking China’s secret of rapid industrialization. (Working Paper No. 2015-006). Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
82.
WillisR.RosenS. (1979). Education and self-selection. Journal of Political Economy, 87(5), S7–S36.
83.
WoessmannL. (2016). The importance of school systems: Evidence from international differences in student achievement. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 30(3), 3–32.
84.
World Bank. (2006). Global monitoring report: MDG: Strengthening mutual accountability, air, trade, and governance. Washington D.C.: The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
85.
YiuL.AdamsJ. (2013). Reforming rural education: Understanding teacher expectations for rural youth. The China Quarterly, 216, 993–1017
86.
ZavelevskyE.LishchinskyO. S. (2020). An ecological perspective of teacher retention: An emergent model. Teaching and Teacher Education, 88, 102965.
