Long-term effects of class size

Peter Fredriksson, Björn Öckert and Hessel Oosterbeek

No 2012:5, Working Paper Series from IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy

Abstract: This paper evaluates the long-term effects of class size in primary school. We use rich administrative data from Sweden and exploit variation in class size created by a maximum class size rule. Smaller classes in the last three years of primary school (age 10 to 13) are not only beneficial for cognitive test scores at age 13 but also for non-cognitive scores at that age, for cognitive test scores at ages 16 and 18, and for completed education and wages at age 27 to 42. The estimated effect on wages is much larger than any indirect (imputed) estimate of the wage effect, and is large enough to pass a cost-benefit test.

Keywords: Class size; regression discontinuity; cognitive skills; non-cognitive skills; educational attainment; earnings (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C31 I21 I28 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2012-02-13
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-lab and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

Published as Fredriksson, Peter, Björn Öckert and Hessel OOsterbeek, 'Long-term effects of class size' in The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2013, pages 249-285.

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Related works:
Journal Article: Long-Term Effects of Class Size (2013)
Working Paper: Long-term effects of class size (2012)
Working Paper: Long-Term Effects of Class Size (2011)
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