Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Twenty Good Teachers is Almost as Effective as Your Parents Getting Welfare

Matt Yglesias:

Using 1940 census records, draft records, and county-level death records, the researchers determined that the sons of the accepted (into Mothers’ Pensions, one of America’s earliest welfare programs) had early adult incomes that were 20 percent higher than those of rejected mothers; these sons were also 35 percent less likely to be underweight as adults, lived a year longer, and had about a third of a year of additional schooling.

One explanation might be that back then only the right people were given the money, if you know what I mean.

To be fair though, I don't know the "one standard deviation improvement in teacher VA in a single grade raises earnings by about 1% at age 28" effect compounds, in which case, you wouldn't need as many teachers to get the same effect.

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