CEP | People | Shqiponja Telhaj

Biography

Professor Shqiponja Telhaj's main research interests are in the areas of applied microeconomics, especially, Economics of Education and Labour Economics. Her main current research focuses on topics of leadership wages, performance and wage inequality in the public sector; the teachers’ labour market; the gender wage gap, and HE Quality. Prof Telhaj is also working on two economic history projects, focusing on communism, religion ban, female participation and economic development. Recently, she worked on an ESRC-funded project on labour market effects of privatisation of state-owned enterprises in developing countries, focusing on India. Currently, Prof. Telhaj is working on a Nuffield Foundation-funded project on school autonomy and teachers’ labour market in England. Since January 2024, Prof. Telhaj is a member of the Albanian National Economic Council and since July 2021 she was appointed as the Chair of the Higher Education Accreditation Board of the Albanian Quality Assurance Agency by the Albanian government. Previously, she has also played advising roles for the UK Department of Education, the Albanian Ministry of Education, etc.

Publications

CEP discussion papers

Personnel policy in public sector organizations: evidence from England's academy schools

Many governments are increasingly decentralizing the governance of public sector organizations, by granting more autonomy to their managers. At the same time, public sector managers often cannot use key personnel practic... Read more...

Emma Duchini, Victor Lavy, Stephen Machin and Shqiponja Telhaj

23 October 2025

CEP discussion papers

Public sector performance disclosure: salary and career outcomes for top managers and employees

Public sector organizations around the world are held to account on the basis of objective measures of performance. This paper investigates, for the first time, the impact of subjective school inspection ratings on labor... Read more...

Iftikhar Hussain, Vincenzo Scrutinio and Shqiponja Telhaj

10 June 2025

CEP election analysis papers

Schools

Schools in England, and the UK as a whole, need greater investment. Failure to do so puts economic growth in jeopardy as well as worsening social mobility.... Read more...

Lee Elliot Major, Stephen Gibbons, Sandra McNally and Shqiponja Telhaj

01 July 2024

Journal article

Teacher turnover: Effects, mechanisms and organisational responses

This paper contributes to the understanding of the causal relationship between teacher turnover and student performance. We extend this research by examining the mechanisms through which turnover affects student learning... Read more...

Stephen Gibbons, Vincenzo Scrutinio and Shqiponja Telhaj

01 December 2021

CEP discussion papers

The public sector and the misallocation of labor: evidence from a policy experiment in India

State-owned enterprises are often thought to represent a distortion in the labor market, but the implied efficiency losses have not been carefully estimated. This paper presents the first rigorous quantification of the a... Read more...

Matthew Baird, A.V. Chari, Shanthi Nataraj, Alexander Rothenberg, Shqiponja Telhaj and L. Alan Winters

23 January 2019

Journal article

Do social interactions in the classroom improve academic attainment?

The role of social interactions in modifying individual behavior is central to many fields of social science. In education, one essential aspect is that “good” peers can potentially improve students’ academic achievement... Read more...

Shqiponja Telhaj

01 June 2018

CEP discussion papers

Teacher turnover: does it matter for pupil achievement?

We add to a small literature examining whether teacher turnover affects academic achievement, focussing on age-16, state secondary school students, using a unique dataset of linked students and teachers in England. We ad... Read more...

Stephen Gibbons, Vincenzo Scrutinio and Shqiponja Telhaj

12 February 2018

CentrePiece - The magazine of the Centre for Economic Performance

Does teacher turnover affect young people's academic achievement?

Do educational results suffer in schools where there is a high turnover among the teaching staff? Shqiponja Telhaj and colleagues explore this question by analysing data from all state secondary schools in England.... Read more...

Stephen Gibbons, Vincenzo Scrutinio and Shqiponja Telhaj

01 March 2017

Journal article

Peer effects: evidence from secondary school transition in England

We estimate the effect of peers' prior achievement on student progress in secondary school, using administrative data on four cohorts of students in England. Students leaving primary for secondary school experience a big... Read more...

Stephen Gibbons and Shqiponja Telhaj

01 August 2016

Journal article

Graduate returns, degree class premia and higher education expansion in the UK

We investigate the extent to which graduate returns vary according to the class of degree achieved by UK university students, and examine changes over time in estimated degree class premia. Using a variety of complementa... Read more...

Robin A. Naylor, James Smith and Shqiponja Telhaj

01 April 2016

CentrePiece - The magazine of the Centre for Economic Performance

In brief... The rewards for getting a good degree

It pays to study hard at university, according to research by Shqiponja Telhaj and colleagues. Their study finds that there is a significant hourly wage premium for getting a first or upper second. For graduates more tha... Read more...

Robin A. Naylor, Jeremy Smith and Shqiponja Telhaj

22 February 2016

CEP discussion papers

Graduate returns, degree class premia and higher education expansion in the UK

We investigate the extent to which graduate returns vary according to the class of degree achieved by UK university students and examine changes over time in estimated degree class premia. Using a variety of complementar... Read more...

Robin A. Naylor, Jeremy Smith and Shqiponja Telhaj

26 November 2015

Journal article

Non-Native Speakers of English in the Classroom: What are the Effects on Pupil Performance?

There has been an increase in the number of children going to school in England who do not speak English as a first language. We investigate whether this has an impact on the educational outcomes of native English speake... Read more...

Charlotte Geay, Sandra McNally and Shqiponja Telhaj

01 August 2013

CentrePiece - The magazine of the Centre for Economic Performance

In brief... Language barriers? The impact of non-native English speakers in the classroom

In recent years there has been an increase in the number of children going to school in England who do not speak English as a first language. We investigate whether this has an impact on the educational outcomes of nativ... Read more...

Charlotte Geay, Sandra McNally and Shqiponja Telhaj

21 May 2012

CEE discussion papers

Non-Native Speakers Of English In The Classroom: What Are The Effects On Pupil Performance?

Charlotte Geay, Sandra McNally and Shqiponja Telhaj

19 March 2012

CEP discussion papers

Educational Returns, Ability Composition and Cohort Effects: Theory and Evidence for Cohorts of Early-Career UK Graduates

An increase over time in the proportion of young people obtaining a degree is likely to impact on the relative ability compositions (i) of graduates and non-graduates and (ii) across graduates with different classes of d... Read more...

Norman Ireland, Robin A. Naylor, Jeremy Smith and Shqiponja Telhaj

01 July 2009

CEE discussion papers

University Quality and Graduate Wages in the UK

We examine the links between various measures of university quality and graduate earnings in the United Kingdom. We explore the implications of using different measures of quality and combining them into an aggregate mea... Read more...

Iftikhar Hussain, Sandra McNally and Shqiponja Telhaj

01 March 2009

CentrePiece - The magazine of the Centre for Economic Performance

In brief... Are the top universities worth paying for?

Iftikhar Hussain, Sandra McNally and Shqiponja Telhaj investigate whether degrees from the UK's 'better' universities are worth more than others.... Read more...

Iftikhar Hussain, Sandra McNally and Shqiponja Telhaj

01 October 2008

SERC Discussion Papers

Peers and Achievement in England's Secondary Schools

The belief that children thrive if educated amongst higher-achieving schoolmates guides many parents in their choice of school. We extend the literature on this issue by considering children making the transition from pr... Read more...

Stephen Gibbons and Shqiponja Telhaj

01 July 2008

CentrePiece - The magazine of the Centre for Economic Performance

School Segregation and its Consequences

The average ability of children going into the best comprehensive schools in England is way above the average ability in the worst, according to a study of the extent to which high- and low-achieving pupils are separated... Read more...

Stephen Gibbons and Shqiponja Telhaj

01 February 2008

CEE discussion papers

Mobility and School Disruption

We consider the influence that mobile pupils have on the academic achievements of other pupils in English primary schools. We find that immobile pupils in year-groups (à la US “grades”) that experience high pupil entry r... Read more...

Stephen Gibbons and Shqiponja Telhaj

01 August 2007

CEE discussion papers

Are Schools Drifting Apart? Intake Stratification in English Secondary Schools

The issue of social segregation in schools has seen a recent resurgence of interest – in the US, UK and internationally – as the debate rages on about whether policies that expand families’ freedom to choose amongst scho... Read more...

Stephen Gibbons and Shqiponja Telhaj

01 December 2006

CEE discussion papers

Peer Effects and Pupil Attainment: Evidence from Secondary School Transition

It is a common belief that children will thrive if educated amongst better class and schoolmates. It is a belief that guides many parents in their choice of school, and has important implications for policy on school cho... Read more...

Stephen Gibbons and Shqiponja Telhaj

01 May 2006

CEE discussion papers

The Mobility of English School Children

In this paper we examine links between pupil mobility and pupil and school characteristics at all levels of compulsory schooling in England. We derive measures of mobility from two academic years of the Pupil Level Annua... Read more...

Stephen Machin, Shqiponja Telhaj and Joan Wilson

01 May 2006