Class-Size Effects in School Systems Around the World: Evidence from Between-Grade Variation in TIMSS
We employ a combination of school fixed effects and IV estimation to estimate the effect of class size on student performance in 18 countries. Using the random part of the class-size variation between two adjacent grades within individual schools allows us to identify causal class-size effects. Conv...
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ftrepec:oai:RePEc:zbw:ifwkwp:1099 2023-05-15T16:49:58+02:00 Class-Size Effects in School Systems Around the World: Evidence from Between-Grade Variation in TIMSS West, Martin R. Wößmann, Ludger https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/17754/1/kap1099.pdf unknown https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/17754/1/kap1099.pdf preprint ftrepec 2020-12-04T13:42:19Z We employ a combination of school fixed effects and IV estimation to estimate the effect of class size on student performance in 18 countries. Using the random part of the class-size variation between two adjacent grades within individual schools allows us to identify causal class-size effects. Conventional estimates of class-size effects are shown to be severely biased in most school systems by within- and between-school sorting of students. Differences in our estimates across countries suggest that it is misleading to generalize results from one school system to others. While we find sizable beneficial effects of smaller classes in Greece and Iceland, the possibility of even small effects is rejected in Japan and Singapore. In 11 countries, we rule out large class-size effects. The existence of class-size effects, and the lack thereof, in different school systems appears to be related to the relative quality of the teaching force. educational production,class size,student sorting,school fixed effects,instrumental variables,TIMSS Report Iceland RePEc (Research Papers in Economics) |
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We employ a combination of school fixed effects and IV estimation to estimate the effect of class size on student performance in 18 countries. Using the random part of the class-size variation between two adjacent grades within individual schools allows us to identify causal class-size effects. Conventional estimates of class-size effects are shown to be severely biased in most school systems by within- and between-school sorting of students. Differences in our estimates across countries suggest that it is misleading to generalize results from one school system to others. While we find sizable beneficial effects of smaller classes in Greece and Iceland, the possibility of even small effects is rejected in Japan and Singapore. In 11 countries, we rule out large class-size effects. The existence of class-size effects, and the lack thereof, in different school systems appears to be related to the relative quality of the teaching force. educational production,class size,student sorting,school fixed effects,instrumental variables,TIMSS |
format |
Report |
author |
West, Martin R. Wößmann, Ludger |
spellingShingle |
West, Martin R. Wößmann, Ludger Class-Size Effects in School Systems Around the World: Evidence from Between-Grade Variation in TIMSS |
author_facet |
West, Martin R. Wößmann, Ludger |
author_sort |
West, Martin R. |
title |
Class-Size Effects in School Systems Around the World: Evidence from Between-Grade Variation in TIMSS |
title_short |
Class-Size Effects in School Systems Around the World: Evidence from Between-Grade Variation in TIMSS |
title_full |
Class-Size Effects in School Systems Around the World: Evidence from Between-Grade Variation in TIMSS |
title_fullStr |
Class-Size Effects in School Systems Around the World: Evidence from Between-Grade Variation in TIMSS |
title_full_unstemmed |
Class-Size Effects in School Systems Around the World: Evidence from Between-Grade Variation in TIMSS |
title_sort |
class-size effects in school systems around the world: evidence from between-grade variation in timss |
url |
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/17754/1/kap1099.pdf |
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Iceland |
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Iceland |
op_relation |
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/17754/1/kap1099.pdf |
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1766040139480432640 |