The determinants of teacher mobility in Sweden

This paper examines the teacher mobility using matched employee-employer panel data from Swedish lower and upper secondary schools. The unique Swedish institutional setup with a growing private sector and individually negotiated wages is ideal to analyze teacher turnover in an environment that economists typically argue for. I find statistically significant and robust negative correlations between mobility and earnings as well as wages. Unlike in the previous research, I do not find robust evidence that share of minorities raise turnover, however, upper secondary and private school teachers are significantly affected. Importantly though, even the discouraged teachers rather change schools than leave teaching. Furthermore, the private sector experiences higher teacher turnover and these institutions have particular problems with retaining science teachers and employing full time faculty.