Quasi-Experimental Estimates of the Effect of Class Size on Achievement in Norway

Edwin Leuven, Hessel Oosterbeek and Marte Rønning

No 3474, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Using a comprehensive administrative database we exploit independent quasi-experimental methods to estimate the effect of class size on student achievement in Norway. The first method is based on a maximum class size rule in the spirit Angrist and Lavy (1999). The second method exploits population variation as first proposed by Hoxby (2000). The results of both methods (and of variations on these methods) are very similar and cannot reject that the class size effect is equal to zero. The estimates are very precise; we can rule out effects as small as 1.5 percent of a standard deviation for a one student change in class size during three years in a row.

Keywords: educational production; class size (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2008-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (60)

Published - published in: Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 2008, 110 (4), 663-693

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Journal Article: Quasi‐experimental Estimates of the Effect of Class Size on Achievement in Norway (2008)
Working Paper: Quasi-experimental estimates of the effect of class size on achievement in Norway (2008)
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