Civil Service Reform and Self-Selection into Teaching: Experimental Evidence from an Information Intervention

Teachers are the most important within-school factor to improve student achievement and educational outcomes, and education systems interested in improving educational results need to attract, develop and retain highly effective teachers. Thus, a key challenge that education systems face is to make the teaching profession attractive to talented youth. Since 2012, Peru has made considerable changes to its teaching career in order to make it more attractive and modify its incentive structure. This paper presents the results of an experiment in which we delivered information to high school seniors regarding recent changes incorporated into the Peruvian teaching career. We find positive effects both at the extensive and intensive margins. Treated students were more likely to enroll in higher education, and to pursue an education major. Our results show that career incentives and information can not only affect the current stock of teachers but also future cohorts.