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Do reductions in class size "crowd out" parental investment in education?

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  • Datar, Ashlesha
  • Mason, Bryce

Abstract

We use panel data from the kindergarten and 1st grade waves of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study--Kindergarten Class to investigate whether increases in schooling inputs in the form of smaller classes "crowd out" parental inputs. We estimate child fixed-effect and fixed-effect-instrumental-variable models to identify the causal effects of class size on three types of parental involvement--parent--child interactions, parent-school interaction, and parent-financed activities for children. Our results suggest that increases in class size are associated with a decrease in parent-child interaction, no change in parent-school interaction, but an increase in parent-financed activities. The magnitude of these effects is between 3% and 7% of a standard deviation. Controlling for parental involvement in test score regressions does not change the achievement effects of class size, suggesting that the benefits of class size reduction are unlikely to be neutralized by adjustments in parental inputs, at least during the first 2 years in school.

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  • Datar, Ashlesha & Mason, Bryce, 2008. "Do reductions in class size "crowd out" parental investment in education?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 712-723, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:27:y:2008:i:6:p:712-723
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    Cited by:

    1. Luis Fernando Gamboa & Mauricio Rodríguez-Acosta & Andrés Felipe García-Suaza, 2010. "Academic achievement in sciences: the role of preferences and educative assets," Documentos de Trabajo 006701, Universidad del Rosario.
    2. Peter Fredriksson & Björn Öckert & Hessel Oosterbeek, 2016. "Parental Responses to Public Investments in Children: Evidence from a Maximum Class Size Rule," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 51(4), pages 832-868.
    3. Fredriksson, Peter & Öckert, Björn & Oosterbeek, Hessel, 2014. "Inside the Black Box of Class Size: Mechanisms, Behavioral Responses, and Social Background," IZA Discussion Papers 8019, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Walsh, Patrick, 2010. "Is parental involvement lower at larger schools?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 959-970, December.
    5. Denny, Kevin & Oppedisano, Veruska, 2013. "The surprising effect of larger class sizes: Evidence using two identification strategies," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 57-65.
    6. Adriana Di Liberto & Fabiano Schivardi & Giovanni Sulis, 2015. "Managerial practices and student performance," Economic Policy, CEPR;CES;MSH, vol. 30(84), pages 683-728.
    7. Martin Browning & Eskil Heinesen, 2014. "Study versus television," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-16, December.
    8. Jackson, Erika & Page, Marianne E., 2013. "Estimating the distributional effects of education reforms: A look at Project STAR," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 92-103.
    9. Ferreyra, Maria Marta & Liang, Pierre Jinghong, 2012. "Information asymmetry and equilibrium monitoring in education," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 237-254.
    10. Singh, Prakarsh, 2011. "Performance Pay and Information: Reducing Child Malnutrition in Urban Slums," MPRA Paper 29403, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Chang, Simon & Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. & Salamanca, Nicolás, 2020. "Parents' Responses to Teacher Qualifications," IZA Discussion Papers 13065, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Del Rey, Elena & Estevan, Fernanda, 2013. "Conditional cash transfers and education quality in the presence of credit constraints," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 76-84.
    13. Karl Fritjof Krassel & Jacob Ladenburg & Camilla Dalsgaard, 2016. "Balancing the risk of ‘Lazearian’ interrupters and the benefits of educational and social peers: tracing parental preferences for class-size reduction," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(7), pages 471-481, May.
    14. Estelle, Sarah M., 2011. "The academic impact on children of maternal post-secondary enrollment," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 353-364, April.
    15. Birgitta Rabe, 2019. "Do school inputs crowd out parents’ investments in their children?," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 460-460, May.
    16. 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.
    17. Holford, Angus, 2015. "Youth employment and academic performance: production functions and policy effects," ISER Working Paper Series 2015-06, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    18. Midori Otani, 2016. "Empirical Analysis of Informative School Outreach on Home-based Parental Involvement," OSIPP Discussion Paper 16E008, Osaka School of International Public Policy, Osaka University.
    19. de Gendre, Alexandra & Salamanca, Nicolás, 2020. "On the Mechanisms of Ability Peer Effects," IZA Discussion Papers 13938, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Maria E. Canon, 2011. "Out-of-school suspensions and parental involvement in children’s education," Working Papers 2011-022, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

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