RISE_WP-048_Recruitment_Effort_Retention_Effects_Performance_Contracts_Civil_servants_Leaver_etal.pdf (2.79 MB)
Download fileRecruitment, Effort, and Retention Effects of Performance Contracts for Civil Servants: Experimental Evidence from Rwandan Primary Schools
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posted on 2022-09-15, 11:15 authored by Clare Leaver, Owen Ozier, Pieter Serneels, Andrew ZeitlinThis paper reports on a two-tiered experiment designed to separately identify the selection and effort margins of pay-for-performance (P4P). At the recruitment stage, teacher labor markets were randomly assigned to a pay-for-percentile or fixed-wage contract. Once recruits were placed, an unexpected, incentive-compatible, school-level re-randomization was performed, so that some teachers who applied for a fixed-wage contract ended up being paid by P4P, and vice versa. By the second year of the study, the within-year effort effect of P4P was 0.16 standard deviations of pupil learning, with the total effect rising to 0.20 standard deviations after allowing for selection.