John Fallon

Welcome! I’m a fifth-year PhD student in the economics department at Boston University. My research focuses on labor economics and education policy. Currently, my primary focus is on occupational licensing and teacher labor markets.

I will be on the market next year.

Research

Adjusting to Another Board: An Analysis of Competitive Occupational Licensure

Occupational licensing is one of the largest labor market institutions in the United States. Economists often suspect that licensing boards can exhibit cartel-like behavior, but we do not have a strong model for how these organizations interact, compete, and set policy. I develop a simple model to explore how similar professions compete for labor supply and prestige. Using this model and reduced form analysis, I examine how chiropractors and allopaths reacted to changes in the occupational licensing landscape in the early 20th century. In this case, the market is suffering from two problems. Occupational licensing and licensing boards alleviate a “market-for-lemons” problem while, at the same time, acting as a cartel. Allowing similar occupations to have independent licensing boards can help alleviate both issues.

Fewer Licenses, Similar Teachers: Changing Licensing Tests in Indiana PDF (with Marcus A. Winters, PhD)

We use longitudinal administrative data from Indiana to examine changes in teacher quality following the state’s shift to a more stringent licensure test. Despite a significant drop in new licenses issued following the change in the licensure test standard, the overall quality of incoming teachers and the relative quality of licensed teachers compared to unlicensed teachers remained largely unchanged. We find some heterogeneity by subject and school setting, with urban schools experiencing a modest decline in teacher quality, particularly in math. Our findings raise questions about the value of requiring prospective teachers to pass licensure tests to obtain a license.

Does Co-teaching Help Teacher Development? (with Andrew Bacher-Hicks, PhD)

Research shows that teachers improve early in their careers, but growth often stagnates by mid-career. While much is known about these trends, less is understood about how to enhance early-career development or sustain improvement later. One possible factor is co-teaching, a practice where two teachers, typically a general and a special education teacher, collaborate in the same classroom. Prior research has largely focused on student outcomes, but co-teaching may also shape teacher development by fostering peer learning. Using administrative data from Indiana (2012–2021), we examine who is assigned to co-teaching, when in their careers it occurs, and how it affects future classroom assignments and teaching performance. Our findings indicate that teachers are more likely to be assigned to co-teaching early in their careers, particularly special education teachers, and that these assignments often lead to shifts in student composition, with general education teachers later teaching more special education students and special education teachers moving into more inclusive settings. While the overall effect of co-teaching on teacher development is not significant without additional controls, we find that general education teachers paired with experienced special education teachers see improvements in their students’ test scores in subsequent years, with gains of approximately 5% of a standard deviation. These benefits are most pronounced when co-teaching occurs within the first two years of a teacher’s career. Our study provides new evidence that co-teaching influences teacher development beyond the immediate classroom setting, suggesting that pairing novice general education teachers with experienced special education teachers can serve as an effective professional development strategy. These insights have important implications for teacher training, assignment policies, and efforts to sustain teacher growth over time.

Teaching

Course Instructor

Debates in Labor Economics - Harvard University (Fall 2024)

Teaching Fellow

Elementary Mathematical Economics - Boston University (Spring 2025)

Economics of Information - Boston University (Spring 2025)

Economic Development of Latin America - Boston University (Spring 2025)

Intermediate Macroeconomic Analysis - Boston University (Fall 2021)

History of the Global Economy - Northeastern University (Fall 2018)

Contact

Email fallonj@bu.edu Bluesky @john-fallon-econ.com