IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jecrev/v65y2014i3p253-281.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can Small Class Policy Close the Gap? An Empirical Analysis of Class Size Effects in Japan

Author

Listed:
  • Hideo Akabayashi
  • Ryosuke Nakamura

Abstract

type="main"> Can smaller classes lead to better educational outcomes and greater equality in achievement? We estimate the causal effects of class size on achievement tests by using discontinuous changes in class size under the Japanese public compulsory education system. We employ a value-added model that uses achievement tests conducted at two different times during the same school year. Our results show that a reduction in class size has significantly positive effects on Japanese language test scores in the sixth grade, especially at schools in wealthy areas. However, we find no evidence that a universal small class policy closes the achievement gap among schools.

Suggested Citation

  • Hideo Akabayashi & Ryosuke Nakamura, 2014. "Can Small Class Policy Close the Gap? An Empirical Analysis of Class Size Effects in Japan," The Japanese Economic Review, Japanese Economic Association, vol. 65(3), pages 253-281, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jecrev:v:65:y:2014:i:3:p:253-281
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/jere.12017
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alan B. Krueger, 1999. "Experimental Estimates of Education Production Functions," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(2), pages 497-532.
    2. Miguel Urquiola & Eric Verhoogen, 2009. "Class-Size Caps, Sorting, and the Regression-Discontinuity Design," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(1), pages 179-215, March.
    3. Caroline M. Hoxby, 2000. "The Effects of Class Size on Student Achievement: New Evidence from Population Variation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(4), pages 1239-1285.
    4. Edwin Leuven & Hessel Oosterbeek & Marte Rønning, 2008. "Quasi‐experimental Estimates of the Effect of Class Size on Achievement in Norway," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 110(4), pages 663-693, December.
    5. Masakazu Hojo, 2011. "Education Production Function and Class-Size Effects in Japanese Public Schools," Global COE Hi-Stat Discussion Paper Series gd11-194, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    6. Pascal Bressoux & Francis Kramarz & Corinne Prost, 2009. "Teachers’ Training, Class Size and Students’ Outcomes: Learning from Administrative Forecasting Mistakes," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(536), pages 540-561, March.
    7. Stock, James H & Wright, Jonathan H & Yogo, Motohiro, 2002. "A Survey of Weak Instruments and Weak Identification in Generalized Method of Moments," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 20(4), pages 518-529, October.
    8. Petra E. Todd & Kenneth I. Wolpin, 2003. "On The Specification and Estimation of The Production Function for Cognitive Achievement," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 113(485), pages 3-33, February.
    9. Mikael Lindahl, 2005. "Home versus School Learning: A New Approach to Estimating the Effect of Class Size on Achievement," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 107(2), pages 375-394, June.
    10. Krueger, Alan B & Whitmore, Diane M, 2001. "The Effect of Attending a Small Class in the Early Grades on College-Test Taking and Middle School Test Results: Evidence from Project STAR," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 111(468), pages 1-28, January.
    11. Eric A. Hanushek, 1996. "Measuring Investment in Education," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 10(4), pages 9-30, Fall.
    12. Berrara, A., 1989. "The Interactive Effects Of Mother'S Schooling And Unsupplemented Breastfeeding On Child Health," Papers 572, Yale - Economic Growth Center.
    13. Martin Browning & Eskil Heinesen, 2007. "Class Size, Teacher Hours and Educational Attainment," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 109(2), pages 415-438, June.
    14. Simone Dobbelsteen & Jesse Levin & Hessel Oosterbeek, 2002. "The causal effect of class size on scholastic achievement: distinguishing the pure class size effect from the effect of changes in class composition," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 64(1), pages 17-38, February.
    15. Hojo, Masakazu & Oshio, Takashi & 小塩, 隆士 & オシオ, タカシ, 2010. "What factors determine student performance in East Asia? New evidence from TIMSS 2007," PIE/CIS Discussion Paper 494, Center for Intergenerational Studies, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    16. Boozer, Michael & Rouse, Cecilia, 2001. "Intraschool Variation in Class Size: Patterns and Implications," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 163-189, July.
    17. Joshua D. Angrist & Victor Lavy, 1999. "Using Maimonides' Rule to Estimate the Effect of Class Size on Scholastic Achievement," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(2), pages 533-575.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Christopher Jepsen, 2015. "Class size: Does it matter for student achievement?," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 190-190, September.
    2. ITO Hirotake & NAKAMURO Makiko & YAMAGUCHI Shintaro, 2019. "Effects of Class-Size Reduction on Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills," Discussion papers 19036, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    3. Ito, Hirotake & Nakamuro, Makiko & Yamaguchi, Shintaro, 2020. "Effects of class-size reduction on cognitive and non-cognitive skills," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    4. Oikawa, Masato & Tanaka, Ryuichi & Bessho, Shun-ichiro & Noguchi, Haruko, 2020. "Do Class Size Reductions Protect Students from Infectious Disease? Lessons for COVID-19 Policy from Flu Epidemic in Tokyo Metropolitan Area," IZA Discussion Papers 13432, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Hirotake Ito & Makiko Nakamuro & Shintaro Yamaguchi, 2019. "Effects of Class-Size Reduction, On Cognitive and Non-cognitive Skills," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-1113, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    6. Tanaka, Ryuichi & Ishizaki, Kazumi, 2018. "Do teaching practices matter for students’ academic achievement? A case of linguistic activity," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 26-36.
    7. Hojo, Masakazu & Senoh, Wataru, 2019. "Do the disadvantaged benefit more from small classes? Evidence from a large-scale survey in Japan," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    8. Torsten Figueiredo Walter, 2020. "Misallocation in the Public Sector? Cross-Country Evidence from Two Million Primary Schools," STICERD - Economic Organisation and Public Policy Discussion Papers Series 70, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Christopher Jepsen, 2015. "Class size: Does it matter for student achievement?," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 190-190, September.
    2. Maximilian Bach & Stephan Sievert, 2019. "Birth Cohort Size Variation and the Estimation of Class Size Effects," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1817, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    3. Masakazu Hojo, 2011. "Education Production Function and Class-Size Effects in Japanese Public Schools," Global COE Hi-Stat Discussion Paper Series gd11-194, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    4. Hægeland, Torbjørn & Raaum, Oddbjørn & Salvanes, Kjell G., 2012. "Pennies from heaven? Using exogenous tax variation to identify effects of school resources on pupil achievement," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 601-614.
    5. Torberg Falch & Astrid Marie Jorde Sandsør & Bjarne Strøm, 2017. "Do Smaller Classes Always Improve Students’ Long-run Outcomes?," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 79(5), pages 654-688, October.
    6. Edwin Leuven & Hessel Oosterbeek & Marte Rønning, 2008. "Quasi‐experimental Estimates of the Effect of Class Size on Achievement in Norway," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 110(4), pages 663-693, December.
    7. Lisa Barrow & Cecilia Elena Rouse, 2005. "Causality, causality, causality: the view of education inputs and outputs from economics," Working Paper Series WP-05-15, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    8. Wo[ss]mann, Ludger & West, Martin, 2006. "Class-size effects in school systems around the world: Evidence from between-grade variation in TIMSS," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 695-736, April.
    9. Argaw, Bethlehem A. & Puhani, Patrick A., 2018. "Does class size matter for school tracking outcomes after elementary school? Quasi-experimental evidence using administrative panel data from Germany," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 48-57.
    10. Mikael Lindahl, 2005. "Home versus School Learning: A New Approach to Estimating the Effect of Class Size on Achievement," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 107(2), pages 375-394, June.
    11. Kedagni, Desire & Krishna, Kala & Megalokonomou, Rigissa & Zhao, Yingyan, 2021. "Does class size matter? How, and at what cost?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    12. Peter Fredriksson & Björn Öckert & Hessel Oosterbeek, 2013. "Long-Term Effects of Class Size," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(1), pages 249-285.
    13. Adrien Bouguen & Julien Grenet & Marc Gurgand, 2017. "Does class size influence student achievement?," Post-Print halshs-02522747, HAL.
    14. Maria De Paola & Vincenzo Scoppa, 2011. "The Effects Of Class Size On The Achievement Of College Students," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 79(6), pages 1061-1079, December.
    15. Adrien Bouguen & Julien Grenet & Marc Gurgand, 2017. "Does class size influence student achievement?," Post-Print halshs-02522747, HAL.
    16. Dinand Webbink, 2005. "Causal Effects in Education," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(4), pages 535-560, September.
    17. Cohen-Zada, Danny & Gradstein, Mark & Reuven, Ehud, 2013. "Allocation of students in public schools: Theory and new evidence," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 96-106.
    18. Alessio Gaggero & Getinet Haile, 2020. "Does class size matter in postgraduate education?," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 88(3), pages 489-505, June.
    19. West, Martin R. & Woessmann, Ludger, 2006. "Which school systems sort weaker students into smaller classes? International evidence," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 944-968, December.
    20. Wößmann, Ludger, 2001. "New Evidence on the Missing Resource-Performance Link in Education," Kiel Working Papers 1051, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jecrev:v:65:y:2014:i:3:p:253-281. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/jeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.