Impacto Sobre o Desempenho Escolar do Pagamento de Bônus aos Docentes do Ensino Fundamental do Estado de São Paulo^*†

Bonus payment schemes to teachers have been growing overseas as a tool for education quality improvement. Since there is very little evidence concerning this kind of policy in Brazil, this papers aims to evaluate the effect of bonus program for teachers in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil, over proficiency of students. Propensity Score Matching and Difference in Differences methods are used to measure the impact of the program. We found positive and significant effects on Math tests (0,42 standard-deviations) and Lecture tests (0,14 standard-deviations) for the fourth grade between 2007 and 2009, but there is a sharp decay in these effects in 2011. We didn’t find any effects for eighth grade of elementary school and, in some specifications and control groups, the results were negative in 2009 and 2011. These results are robust to different control groups.