Long-term effects of class size

Peter Fredriksson, Björn Öckert and Hessel Oosterbeek

No 2012:8, Research Papers in Economics from Stockholm University, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper evaluates the long-term effects of class size in primary school. We use rich 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 beneficial for cognitive and non-cognitive ability at age 13, and improve achievement at age 16. Most importantly, we find that smaller classes have positive effects on completed education, wages, and earnings at age 27 to 42. The estimated wage effect is much larger than any 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: 37 pages
Date: 2012-07-05
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)

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http://www2.ne.su.se/paper/wp12_08.pdf (application/pdf)

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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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:sunrpe:2012_0008

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