Research
My reserach can broadly fit into three categories: Teachers and Teacher Labour Markets, Education and Education Inequalities and Survey Methods. You can see how my reserach has featured in the media and influenced policy here.
Teachers and Teacher Labour Markets
Teacher Recruitment and Retention
Labour Market Expectations and Occupational Choice: Evidence from Teaching. Available here.
Bad Economy, Good Teachers? The countercyclicality of enrolment into Initial Teacher Training Programmes in the UK. Available here
Local pay and teacher retention in England (with James Zuccollo). Available here.
Unhappy, uninformed and inequality averse. The role of wellbeing, labour market beliefs and inequality preferences on occupational choice. Slides Available here.
Teacher Performance
Relative Wages and Pupil Performance, evidence from TIMSS. Available here
Invalid estimates and biased means. A replication of a recent meta-analysis investigating the effect of teacher professional development on pupil outcomes. Available here
Teacher Diversity
Education and Education Inequalities
Parental Background, Labour Market Expectations and University Applications Intentions in the UK (with Adeline Delavande and Basit Zafar). Available here
The evolution of cognitive skills during childhood across the UK (with Luke Sibieta). Available here.
Using games to improve students’ engagement and understanding of statistics in higher education. Available here.
Survey Methods
Works in progress
Labour Market Expectations and Occupational Choice: Evidence from Teaching
Abstract: Using new data on teachers attrition intentions, subjective expectations about labour market outcomes and a modified discrete-choice experiment we find that i) teachers are systematically misinformed about population earnings, and misinformation is correlated with attrition intentions; ii) non-pecuniary factors are the most cost-effective method of reducing teacher attrition; and iii) attrition intentions are more affected by reductions in workplace amenities than symmetric improvements, suggesting preventing cuts is more important that rolling out more generous benefits. Linking our survey data to teachers’ administrative records we provide the first evidence that teachers attrition intentions are strong predictors of actual behaviour.
How much do you want it? The impact of financial costs on the decision to teach
Abstract: There is a significant empirical literature on the effects of economic incentives on teacher supply, but there is little empirical evidence of the impact of financial costs. Using data from the Destination of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) we investigate the effect that tripling tuition fees for Initial Teacher Training Programmes (TTP) had on enrolment in England. Using a matching strategy we find evidence that the increase in tuition fees has a negative effect on the probability that a graduate will enrol, where the effect is significantly stronger for male graduates.
How parents update their beliefs of higher education attainment in response to new information about their child’s academic ability (MRes Thesis)
Abstract: This paper uses a survey of children attending secondary school in England to investigate how parental beliefs, with regards to their children’s higher educational attainment, respond to new information about academic ability. We find that parents become less optimistic over time. We also find that parental beliefs respond negatively to negative information, while there is a more complicated relationship between positive information and how parents respond. This paper supports the social signalling model, where parents signal overconfidently due to social reasons.
