First Job and the Unequal Distribution of Primary School Teachers: Evidence for the Case of Chile

Abstract

Teachers’ first employment is key to explain their final distribution in the system. Through a mixed-method approach we study the factors that are related to the first job for teachers in Chile in schools with different regimes. Specifically, we consider teacher’s socio-demographic and initial training-related characteristics, the application and hiring processes, and job characteristics. We find that teachers with a higher social capital are less likely to start teaching in public schools, and that participation in field experience during their initial training in a public school, increases the probability to teach in those contexts.