Rebecca Rose (LSE) - Intention to Teach: Incentive Impacts of Bursaries

I assess the impact of financial incentives on the selection, recruitment, and retention of trainee teachers. Using a panel of the UK school workforce, I exploit variation in the bursary levels offered across years, subjects, and the trainee’s undergraduate classification. Results suggest that a £1k uplift in training bursary leads to a 2.9% increase in trainee recruitment, and a 1.5% increase in the 3-year retention rate. This is largely driven by selection in observable characteristics; recruits are 0.7% less likely to appear as a teacher after training when controlling for observable characteristics. A £1k bursary uplift also reduces the share of non-white stem trainees by 0.67%. Bursaries attract trainees with high educational attainment into stem courses, but those with lower attainment into non-stem courses. I develop a model of occupational choice and motivation to explain these trends. Raising training bursaries offers a short-term solution to teacher shortages but raises concerns about teacher motivation and diversity within the classroom.

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