Teacher salaries and teacher aptitude: An analysis using quantile regressions

This study investigates the relationship between salaries and scholastic aptitude for full-time public high school humanities and mathematics/sciences teachers. For identification, we rely on variation in salaries between adjacent school districts within the same state. The results indicate that teacher aptitude is positively correlated with teacher salaries with an elasticity point estimate of 0.132. However, using quantile regressions, we find the elasticity estimates form an inverted U-shape across the scholastic aptitude distribution, and that higher aptitude teachers are more profoundly affected by the percentage of students eligible for free lunch and local street crime, while lower aptitude teachers are more profoundly affected by local education support. Furthermore, studying mathematics/sciences teachers, we find that while the elasticity estimates maintain an inverted U-shape, scholastic aptitude is not correlated with changes in salaries for the lower 40 percentiles of the aptitude distribution.

► Investigates teacher salary-aptitude relationship using quantile regression.
► Inverted U-shaped salary-aptitude relationship is evidenced across the aptitude distribution.
► Higher aptitude teachers are affected by students eligible for free lunch and street crime.
► Lower aptitude teachers are affected by local education support.
► Aptitude is not correlated with salary for lower 40 percentiles of math/science teacher aptitude.