Abstract: This paper links a teacher-level measure of gender-stereotyped grading — validated against their Implicit Association Test (IAT) scores — to the later schooling and labor-market outcomes of 1.6 million Peruvian students. Exposure to a more stereotyped teacher widens the gender gaps in high-school completion, formal-sector employment, and earnings, driven by boys’ lasting gains rather than by girls’ smaller, short-lived losses. A single year with a math teacher one standard deviation more stereotyped than average raises boys’ on-time graduation by 0.9 percentage points and lowers girls’ by 0.6. Over the five years after high school (ages 17–22), it raises boys’ formal employment by 4%–12% of the mean employment rate and widens the gender pay gap by about 11% in the first two years, while girls’ losses fade thereafter. These effects run through high-school completion, not test scores or college enrollment. The widening gap in male-dominated industries mainly reflects men’s entry rather than women’s exit, and students show little sign of adopting the stereotypes themselves. Where structural barriers already constrain access to higher education, teachers’ stereotypes shape who finishes school and their early labor-market outcomes, rather than who reaches college.
Keywords: Gender stereotypes, Gender pay gap, Value-added, Education, Labour market outcomes
JEL Classification: J16, J24, I24, J71
Cite as: Martínez, J. J. (2027). The long-term effects of teachers’ gender stereotypes on labor outcomes. Journal of Development Economics, 185, 103917.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2026.103917