The Causes and Consequences of U.S. Teacher Strikes

Melissa Arnold Lyon, Matthew Kraft and Matthew P. Steinberg

No 32862, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: The U.S. has witnessed a resurgence of labor activism, with teachers at the forefront. We examine how teacher strikes affect compensation, working conditions, and productivity with an original dataset of 772 teacher strikes generating 48 million student days idle between 2007 and 2023. Using an event study framework, we find that, on average, strikes increase compensation by 8% and lower pupil-teacher ratios by 0.5 students, driven by new state revenues. We find little evidence of sizable impacts on student achievement up to five years post-strike, though strikes lasting 10 or more days decrease math achievement in the short-term.

JEL-codes: I22 J30 J45 J52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-inv, nep-lab and nep-ure
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