DGPE PhD course: Economics of Teachers, 2 ECTS

This PhD course is hosted by DGPE and Trygfonden's Centre for Child Research.

In the days leading up to this course, the Nordic Summer Institute in Labor Economics takes place at Department of Economics and Business Economics. For more information see: https://events.au.dk/nordicsummerinstitute

Description

This course is intended for PhD students in economics or related quantitative fields who have an interest in the economics of education, especially teachers, and personnel economics.  

Teachers are central to the economics of schooling. Teacher labor costs dominate school budgets, and teachers’ contributions to student achievement dominate the variation in achievement created by schools. This course has three overlapping themes: First, the econometrics of measuring teachers’ causal contributions to student outcomes. Second, the notable variability in teachers’ contributions, and what might explain that variability. Third, how employer-employee interactions between schools and teachers—e.g., performance evaluation, compensation, job design—affect teachers’ contributions. 

Some familiarity with linear regression and panel data is required. Ideally, students will also have familiarity with the standard causal-inference frameworks, e.g., field experiments, difference-in-differences, regression discontinuity, conditional independence arguments, etc.  

> course description

Format and schedule

This course is comprised of the equivalent to 2 full days of teaching (12 hrs) in addition to preparing readings (20 hrs) and presentations (or the submission of a research proposal after the course) (20 hrs). 

• Wednesday 29 May 2024: sessions 12:00 - 16:30 
  Course dinner 18:00
• Thursday 30 May 2024: sessions 8:30 - 16:30
• Friday 31 May 2024: sessions 8:30 - 12:00

Lecturer

Associate Professor Eric Taylor, Harvard Graduate School of Education: https://scholar.harvard.edu/erictaylor

ECTS credits

In order to receive credits for the course, students should either give a presentation (30 min) within the topics covered by the course (broadly speaking) or submit a research proposal (5-10 pages) no later than 2 weeks after the course has finished.

• 1 April 2024: submit draft paper for student presentation to sch@econ.au.dk

For PhD students at AU (ECON), this course has been pre-approved as an internal BSS PhD course.

Registration

Registration no later than 1 May 2024: https://events.au.dk/dgpecourseeconomicsofteachers/conference

The course is free of charge for:

1. DGPE members from AU, KU, CBS, AAU and SDU.
2. PhD students from Economics Departments at Nordic universities outside Denmark.

For other participants, the course fee is EUR 150.

See other DGPE courses here: https://econ.au.dk/dgpe/dgpe-courses

Contact

Academic: Helena Skyt Nielsen, hnielsen@econ.au.dk
Administrative: Susanne Christensen, sch@econ.au.dk