State-specific licensing policies and pension plans create mobility costs for educators who cross state lines. We empirically test whether these costs affect production in schools--a hypothesis that follows directly from economic theory on labor frictions--using geo-coded data from the lower-48 states. We find that achievement is lower in…

Barriers to the cross-state mobility of the teacher workforce can have undesirable effects on the teacher workforce and student outcomes. While a large literature addresses issues related to within-state mobility, very little is known about patterns of cross-state mobility. This paper addresses that research gap. We describe features of Oregon's…