Student and Teacher Attendance: The Role of SharedGoods in Reducing Absenteeism

A theoretical model is advanced that demonstrates that, if teacher and student attendancegenerate a shared good, then teacher and student attendance will be mutually reinforcing.Using data from the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan, empirical evidence supportingthat proposition is advanced. Controlling for the endogeneity of teacher and studentattendance, the most powerful factor raising teacher attendance is the attendance of thechildren in the school, and the most important factor influencing child attendance is thepresence of the teacher. The results suggest that one important avenue to be explored indeveloping policies to reduce teacher absenteeism is to focus on raising the attendance ofchildren.[...]