I was recently awarded an ERC Starting grant. In this page, you can find information on the project and on job opportunities within it.
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Starting Grant 2022
TEACHERCAREER |
Project overview
Across all levels of education, instructors play a crucial role for students. Yet it is usually very difficult to predict a teacher’s effectiveness with observables: What makes a good teacher remains a “black box,” making it hard for schools to identify the best candidates. Effective teachers are also hard to attract and retain and, as a result, they are in constant shortage. Monetary incentives have proven ineffective to mitigate this problem, and not much is known on how non-monetary aspects of the job impact the selection and retention of good teachers. This proposal aims at filling these gaps by (i) proposing an innovative approach to understand teacher effectiveness and how it influences the production and dissemination of educational content; and (ii) providing rigorous empirical evidence on teachers’ preferences for non-monetary attributes of a teaching job, with a special focus on career prospects and work arrangements. Combining administrative, experimental, and text data and cutting-edge empirical methods, the goal is to ensure that schools can identify, attract, and retain talented instructors and provide adequate education to all students.
The proposal has two parts. In the first, we develop a new method to characterize the effectiveness of an instructor via an analysis of the educational content they produce. We will then study how instructors with different characteristics shape content and how exposure to different content impacts students. In the second part, we will investigate the impact of two non-monetary aspects of a teachers’ job. The first are opportunities for career advancements. We will study how teachers form their aspirations to a principal position, with a special emphasis on differences across gender. The second aspect are work arrangements, such as remote vs in-person teaching. We will study how the sudden switch to remote teaching at the onset of the Covid pandemic has impacted workers’ well-being, with a focus on mental health.
Across all levels of education, instructors play a crucial role for students. Yet it is usually very difficult to predict a teacher’s effectiveness with observables: What makes a good teacher remains a “black box,” making it hard for schools to identify the best candidates. Effective teachers are also hard to attract and retain and, as a result, they are in constant shortage. Monetary incentives have proven ineffective to mitigate this problem, and not much is known on how non-monetary aspects of the job impact the selection and retention of good teachers. This proposal aims at filling these gaps by (i) proposing an innovative approach to understand teacher effectiveness and how it influences the production and dissemination of educational content; and (ii) providing rigorous empirical evidence on teachers’ preferences for non-monetary attributes of a teaching job, with a special focus on career prospects and work arrangements. Combining administrative, experimental, and text data and cutting-edge empirical methods, the goal is to ensure that schools can identify, attract, and retain talented instructors and provide adequate education to all students.
The proposal has two parts. In the first, we develop a new method to characterize the effectiveness of an instructor via an analysis of the educational content they produce. We will then study how instructors with different characteristics shape content and how exposure to different content impacts students. In the second part, we will investigate the impact of two non-monetary aspects of a teachers’ job. The first are opportunities for career advancements. We will study how teachers form their aspirations to a principal position, with a special emphasis on differences across gender. The second aspect are work arrangements, such as remote vs in-person teaching. We will study how the sudden switch to remote teaching at the onset of the Covid pandemic has impacted workers’ well-being, with a focus on mental health.
Job opportunities
Post-doc: I will be hiring one postdoctoral associate to work on these projects. The postdoctoral associate should plan to have received their PhD by December 2023. The position will be based in Rome (Italy) with the possibility of spending part of the time in the US. Interested candidates should email a CV, cover letter, research statement and two research papers at barbara.biasi@yale.edu with subject "ERC post-doc application."
Research Assistant: I will be hiring several research assistants to help work on these projects. Ideal candidates should have received their B.A. degrees by December 2023, have experience doing applied work, and be familiar with R, Stata, and Phython. The positions will be based in Rome (Italy) but remote work is possible. This position will be advertised on EconJobMarket.org soon. In the meantime, interested candidates can email a CV, cover letter, writing sample, and coding sample at barbara.biasi@yale.edu with subject "ERC RA application."
Post-doc: I will be hiring one postdoctoral associate to work on these projects. The postdoctoral associate should plan to have received their PhD by December 2023. The position will be based in Rome (Italy) with the possibility of spending part of the time in the US. Interested candidates should email a CV, cover letter, research statement and two research papers at barbara.biasi@yale.edu with subject "ERC post-doc application."
Research Assistant: I will be hiring several research assistants to help work on these projects. Ideal candidates should have received their B.A. degrees by December 2023, have experience doing applied work, and be familiar with R, Stata, and Phython. The positions will be based in Rome (Italy) but remote work is possible. This position will be advertised on EconJobMarket.org soon. In the meantime, interested candidates can email a CV, cover letter, writing sample, and coding sample at barbara.biasi@yale.edu with subject "ERC RA application."