The effect of participation in a performance pay program on teacher opinions toward performance pay in rural China

This paper examines how teacher opinions towards performance pay policies change when participating in a performance pay program. We use data from an RCT of 220 6th grade math teachers in 193 schools in rural China, where teachers were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups or the control group. We find that participation in the incentive program raised teacher support for performance pay generally. This effect was largest for teachers who could earn big incentive payments and those who received the largest overall bonuses. We did not find that the changes in opinions significantly differ by teacher characteristics.