The Turnover of Teachers: A Competing Risks Explanation

In this paper, we analyze the decision by teachers to leave the profession in a dependent competing risks framework. The econometric model allows for a flexible, semiparametric specification of the duration-dependence structure and of the unobserved heterogeneity distribution in each exit-specific hazard function. Our results obtained for a large sample of UK teachers affirm the importance of teacher salaries and opportunity wages in the turnover decision of teachers and illustrate the insight gained from differentiating between multiple destinations or exit types.