| Daniel Kreisman
University of Chicago
Comparing returns on investments in teachers and schools: Evidence from two natural experiments
I exploit natural variation in the timing and location of two large-scale interventions to compare rates of return on investments in school infrastructure and capacity to returns on investments in teacher quality at various ages. Using the decennial census 1910-1950, I compare effects of the Jeanes Teachers Fund, an intervention to improve teacher quality in rural, southern black schools, to effects from the Rosenwald School Fund, which built nearly 5,000 schools targeting southern, black students over the same time period. In addition to significant variation in exposure across counties, I address selection bias by estimating sibling fixed effects and use estimates of the black county-level population as an instrument in a regression discontinuity design, as each program targeted counties above and below a certain population threshold. Estimates of these program effects are used with program expenditures to compare marginal rates of return at varying ages and levels of teacher and school quality. In addition, this study is the first to estimate the effects of the Jeanes Teachers fund.
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