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Scott A. Imberman

Michigan State University, USA

IZA World of Labor gives researchers an excellent opportunity to reach a broad audience of policymakers and play an important role in informing and affecting government policies worldwide. I am excited to have this opportunity to have my own and my colleagues’ research reach those who can use it to make change for the better

IZA World of Labor role

Author

Current position

Associate Professor, Michigan State University, USA

Research interest

Economics of education, child development, public economics, labor economics

Website

https://econ.msu.edu/about/directory/Imberman-Scott

Past positions

Assistant Professor, University of Houston, Department of Economics, 2007–2012

Qualifications

PhD Economics, University of Maryland, 2007

Selected publications

  • “Incentive strength and teacher productivity: Evidence from a group-based teacher incentive pay system.” Review of Economics and Statistics 97:2 (2015) (with M. Lovenheim).

  • “Is gifted education a bright idea? Assessing the impacts of gifted and talented programs.” American Economic Journal—Economic Policy 6:3 (2014) (with S. Bui and S. Craig).

  • "Impact of bilingual education programs on limited English proficient students and their peers: Regression discontinuity evidence from Texas." Journal of Public Economics 107 (2013) (with A. Chin and N. M. Daysal).

  • "Katrina's children: Evidence on the structure of peer effects from hurricane evacuees.” American Economic Review 102:5 (2012) (with A. Kugler and B. Sacerdote).

  • "Achievement and behavior in charter schools: Drawing a more complete picture." Review of Economics and Statistics 93:1 (2011).

article(s)

  • How effective are financial incentives for teachers?

    Linking teacher pay to student performance has become popular, but evidence on its effectiveness is mixed

    Scott A. Imberman, June 2015
    Concerns about poor student performance have led schools to diverge from traditional teacher compensation and base a portion of pay on student outcomes. In the US, the number of school districts adopting such performance-based financial incentives has increased by more than 40% since 2004. Evidence on individual incentives in developed countries is mixed, with some positive and some negligible impacts. There is less evidence for developing countries, but several studies indicate that incentives can be highly effective and far cheaper to implement. Innovative incentive mechanisms such as incentives based on relative student performance show promise.
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