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Quasi‐experimental Estimates of the Effect of Class Size on Achievement in Norway *
Author(s) -
Leuven Edwin,
Oosterbeek Hessel,
Rønning Marte
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
the scandinavian journal of economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.725
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1467-9442
pISSN - 0347-0520
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9442.2008.00556.x
Subject(s) - norwegian , class size , class (philosophy) , econometrics , standard deviation , variation (astronomy) , statistics , student achievement , population , mathematics , mathematics education , economics , academic achievement , demography , computer science , physics , sociology , artificial intelligence , philosophy , linguistics , astrophysics
Using a comprehensive Norwegian administrative database, we exploit independent quasi‐experimental methods to estimate the effect of class size on student achievement at the end of lower‐secondary school. Identification based on maximum class‐size rules and population variation (and variations on these methods) give very similar estimates. We cannot reject that the class‐size effect is equal to zero, and can rule out effects as small as 1.5 percent of a standard deviation for a one‐student change in class size during three consecutive years.